Marsabit County, the largest county in Kenya in land size, has over the years experienced varied emergencies. The county, for instance, recently experienced the worst drought in four decades after five seasons of failed rains (2021 -2023). During this period, the county slipped to critical EMERGENCY phase of the crisis according to humanitarian agency FEWSNET – facing acute water and food shortage with over 98% of its open water sources having dried up according to the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) reports.
Malnutrition rates hit hit EXTREME CRITICAL LEVELS – three times the global average – according to the NDM. Most pastoralists lost over 80% of their herds. These developments came with heavy livelihoods and assets losses as well as severe mental health challenges on communities.
Immediately after that, as they say, calamities never come singly: the country experienced devastating floods again drowning animals, destroying critical infrastructure such as roads and affecting food production and pastoralism.
As a grassroots organisation, Juhudi Mashinani has been at the forefront of communities’ humanitarian interventions. The organisation was, for instance, the driver of OKOA KENYA, a multi-sectoral initiative raising resources to cushion communities from ASAL counties affected by the drought. For Marsabit County, Juhudi has been running the ‘Lisha Familia’ campaign that seeks to feed families in the county during emergencies.
Some of the direct emergency interventions that the organisation has been undertaking include:
- Mobilisation of dry foods
- Mobilisation of nutritional supplements for breast feeding mothers and malnourished children
- Water trucking
- Cash transfer
The organisation is also pushing for the following long-term measures:
- Provision of water: solarized boreholes, water pans and dams
- Water desalination where water is salty
- Complementing pastoralism with subsistence farming e.g kitchen gardens
- Smart farming technologies e.g drip irrigation
- Supporting communities-water harvesting in their communal settlements : large tanks
- Adoption of indigenous food preservation mechanisms e.g dry meat among the pastoral communities
- Farming of drought-resistant crops e.g sorghum and millet in communal farms
- Adoption of smart fodder farming and preservation practices such as silage, hay, among others
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