Kenyan families lose fortunes to harsh climate

Ogunde Abbdi's family has just returned from Ethiopia after an eight-month expedition in search of water and pasture for livestock.  

When they left for Ethiopia in April, Ajawa village, 270km north of Wajir town, was dry. But now, the recent rains have brought back life, transforming the village's outlook.  

But the green beauty can be deceptive as the village mourns in silence. 

Seated on a mat under lush acacia tree, Abdille narrates loses his family has encountered from prolonged drought.  

"Had the rains come at least 3 months earlier… had the April rains not failed, my animals could have survived. The rains arrived too late. All the cattle and sheep died. Only a handful camels and goats survived because they could browse", the 59 year old said. 

Residents say they had seen the crisis coming but it was too soon to comprehend.

"For the last 10 years, the weather pattern we had so much relied on became erratic", he says.

"There were dry spells in between but the April and October rains never failed. Even if they were inadequate they at least showered. Now it is difficult to anticipate for rains", he says.  

For the past decade, erratic rains occasioned by climate change have wreaked havoc in northern Kenya.

The region continues to record a large number of animal deaths, with loss of hope hanging allover.

Pastoralists whose animals have died can be seen crouching in urban centers, struggling to come to terms with the losses, which compounds poverty.  

"People going insane after losing all their wealth is very common here," Mr Ibrahim Abukar, a pastoralist says.

"We expect it because we toil for these animals crisscrossing the region and neighbouring countries. We bank on the livestock and if they are doomed, so are we", he said.  

Asked if he knows the causes of climate change, Abukar offers his own version: "May be Allah is bitter with human beings. You see, when the rains pour, man claims he had predicted it forgetting without Allah's will, it is impossible. Human claim credit and maybe Allah is trying to prove he is the provider".  

Residents recall days when the short and long rains never failed. Areas like Wajir North and Ijara Districts featured evergreen vegetation by virtue of falling on the foot of Ethiopian highlands and Coastal rain forests that attracted rains between April and June on one hand and between September and November on the other.

While the rest of the province has largely barren sandy soil and high temperatures, Wajir North and Ijara districts receive average rainfall annually, according to Meteorological records.

Tana River once used to surge and spill its water to nearby Garissa town.

These features have now been altered by climate severities.  

In a region once dotted with lush indigenous trees and seasonal green pastures and rivers, sand dunes, cyclones and sandstorms are now a common sight.  

Some areas have been turned into dustbowls on which nothing grows even when it rains.

Natural springs that came from the Bute Hills in Wajir North died 10 years ago, residents say.

Global warming, the increase in the average temperature of the earth, has been blamed for the disaster unfolding in this arid and semi arid region.

Deforestation is common here as hundreds of herdsmen, after losing their animals to drought, have turned to charcoal burning to eke a living.  

Abdikadir Sheikh, the Wajir District National Environmental Management Authority coordinator says climate change has increased the intensity and frequency of drought.

"The delay or total failure of rains has led to environmental degradation faster than the earth could replenish. The temperatures are unusually high", Abdikadir says.

An Oxfam report warns poor harvest, water shortages and extreme temperatures, as the consequences of climate change will plunge millions of the rural poor into desperation.

As world leaders prepare for another round of climate talks in Morocco later this year, the pastoralists of northern Kenya who are stuck in the traditional survival methods will be looking for new solutions to cope with the weather vagaries.