Isiolo women under the umbrella of Queen of Peace community-based organisation during a meeting at Daaba, in Ngaremara Ward, on July 4, 2026. [Ali Abdi, Standard]
Isiolo women want a bigger part of the County Climate Change Fund (CCCF) to be channeled to counter non-economic losses and damages.
Under the umbrella of Queen of Peace community-based organisation, representatives of 28 women groups with over 3,000 members from wards in the county said that the kitty which was piloted first in Isiolo in 2011with funds from the World Bank had not yet fully addressed the challenges those in villages go through as a result of the effects of climate change.
They urged the administration to focus more on the Non-Economic Losses and Damages (NELD) by empowering women and the youth in the villages who are faced by the challenges of the adverse effects of climate change using the funds under CCCF.
CCCF, that also covered covered Garissa, Kitui, Makueni and Wajir during the pilot period before it was rolled out nationwide, had received support through national programmes like the World Bank-backed Financing Locally-Led Climate Action (FLLOCA) initiative.
"We want the climate change fund here (Isiolo) to do more than occasionally engaging women and youth to cut down or burn the intrusive mathenge trees in our villages," said Quresho Bille, the chairlady of Queen of Peace.
"Once in a while, we see a group of women and youth being engaged to clear the mathenge trees in our villages and grazing areas. While this is also an empowering engagement, it is not enough to counter the monster we are facing on daily basis. We should do more to restore and conserve our environment," said Bille.
The women leaders met at Daaba, in Ngaremara electoral Ward on Saturday, where they briefed officials from the 28 groups on their recent field tour of Narok County where they went to benchmark on how their counterparts there were adapting to climate change challenges.
They spent four days with their women folks from Maasai community, spending nights in their bomas and taking day field trips that included a tour of grazing zones, cultural shrine and business kiosks at the entrances of the game reserve and other private wildlife sanctuaries.
"There was peaceful co- existence of human beings and wildlife in villages surrounding the Maasai Mara National Reserve. Their land has better vegetation cover, where you could see a herder looking after his cattle and not far away zebras and gazelles also eating grass," narrated Sabina Namwe from Daaba Juu group.
Namwe observed that unlike the Maasai of Narok, the various pastoralists communities in Isiolo like the Turkana, Samburu and Borana do not have in place cultural centres where their respective cultural heritage and identify could be preserved and be spread to the younger generation.
"We have been forced to migrate with our animals to new areas due to drought and floods and in the process abandoned our culture and gradually losing our language. Today, you hardly find a homestead where even the immediate family members can converse in their mother tongue for a minute without bringing in a foreign word," she observed.
The group said the pastoralists in the area are fast losing their indigenous trees and shrubs with medicinal effects and traditional food adding that urgent measures should be taken by stakeholders in the climate change sector to reverse the trend.
Isabella Nkatha from Sacred Heart Mapenzi group in Bula Pesa ward said women and youth should be empowered through funding to restore their degraded environment to support both human and wildlife to exit together peacefully.
"Not long ago, we could see smaller wild animals from my estate in Sacred Heart area. Today, you have to incur cost to travel to a distant game park to take your children to see the same animals," obsessed Nkatha.
The women now plan to come up with cultural centres for each of the major community in the county at strategic locations within their wards to boost traditional knowledge, especially amongst the younger population.
Wycliffe Wasike, Queens of Peace Communication Advisor called on the groups to form a community biodiversity data registry where they could capture information on all traditional heritages on trees, shrubs and seeds among others in their areas of operations.
"You can come up with a committee to deal specifically with the data collection and preservation on your indeginous plants and bring in even the elders and the educated youth in order to find out, which herbal plants are still found in your areas, which were there but lost and those only found elsewhere," advised Mr Wasike.
With the input from the elders with tradition knowledge, Wasike said the locals would be able to have a data registry in one place and thereafter use the information therein in restoration of their degraded biodiversity and ecosystem.
"The losses made over time cannot easily be restored or adequately compensated with money. However, there are certain things we can do in order to restore and conserve our environment," said the official.
He asked those who benefited from the study tour of Narok to share knowledge they gained with their members adding that they had now realized why they do no longer have small wildlife near their villages as compared to the past.