A defining perspective into drought and famine
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By Peter Ngugi This year’s drought alert saw the Government make a flurry of unprecedented moves to avert famine. However, were these sufficient or sustainable, given the poor implementation record in the past and severity of a drought that was largely foreseeable? Herds of livestock and wildlife in the country’s arid and semi-arid areas (Asals) have died in their thousands. Households have also had to do with food shortages, escalating food prices as well as power and water rationing. Pastoralists drove their livestock into grazing grounds of farming communities, causing constant friction and fatalities. Kenya’s annual maize yield has reduced to 15 million bags against a demand of 35 million. The Government has started or revived irrigation schemes and scores of boreholes have been dug in dry areas and in Nairobi to alleviate water shortage. What then is needed to attain food sufficiency in drought-stricken areas? Famines result from human action. There is firstly poor governance that has for years failed to effectively protect the environment and ensure food security. High population growth rate has tended to tilt the population/land resource balance, with more mouths to feed against finite land resources. Largely unexploited The fertility rate of women has remained at high and in the absence of large-scale industrialisation, the population/land balance will continue deteriorate. The worst drought-hit areas are in Asals, which cover over 80 per cent of Kenya’s landmass holding 25 per cent of Kenya’s 40 million people. Characterised by low rainfall and long dry spells, the Asals are further prone to over-exploitation of resources such as grazing land, water, and other natural resources. Asals have remained largely unexploited, leading to high poverty levels. Garissa, Wajir, Mandera, Isiolo Pokot and Marsabit are in the Asals, which also include parts of Taita Taveta, Kwale and parts of Eastern Province. Successive governments have exhibited poor development prioritisation and an even more dismal investment record in virtually every field in the zone. North Eastern Province was poorly integrated into the national economy, threatened with insecurity. Other problems experienced include unequal development between dry North and more hospitable South. In the first years of Independent Kenya Sectional Paper No. 10 stated government investment would be focused on areas where returns are guaranteed so that the monies obtained would then be distributed nationally. Neither this, nor the subsequent programme for the "alleviation of poverty" in the second decade, did much to lift NEP from poverty. Only recently, Kenya Roads Board discovered that of the 4,500km classified road network in Kenya’s largest province, only 15.5km are paved. Eastern Province has a 3,494km road network of which only 20km is tarmacked. Another survey revealed that NEP has the lowest literacy rates nationally, at 8.1 per cent, compared to Nairobi’s 81 per cent. Government must emphasise on education since an educated population is able to use available information that offer solution to food shortage as well as other development issues. This year’s drought has much to do with the drought in the rest of Sahelian region including parts of Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia. The spread the Sahara and other global warming issues would definitely feature at December’s Copenhagen climate conference. At the conference, Eastern Africa also needs to seek better bilateral and multilateral trade terms for its people. —The writer is a lecturer at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning.