'Our children are next' fear Kenyans as drought wipes out livestock

Abdirizak Gabow, 63, gathers goat carcasses from the surrounding bush into a cluster to be burned later for sanitation purposes in Hawara village near Rhamu town, on January 21, 2026. [AFP]

In drought-hit northeastern Kenya, villagers have been forced to drag their dead livestock to distant fields for burning to keep the stench of death and scavenging hyenas away from their homes.

Mandera county along Kenya's borders with Ethiopia and Somalia has seen no rain since May and is now on the point of a full-blown water emergency.