Long Awaited Rains Arrive in Kenya

World Concern
Wednesday, 29 November 2000

NAROK DISTRICT, Kenya – This week, World Concern relief workers joined families in Kenya in celebrating the hope that many children might survive. Long awaited rains have finally returned to the drought-stricken country. Still, the next crops won't be ready for harvest until July of 2001, and their quality depends largely on steady rains through spring.

For the last three years, the Narok District in the southwestern tip of Kenya has experienced short rain seasons resulting in child malnutrition, destroyed crops and reduced availability of water and pasture. As of July, 30% of children ages 1 to 5 were experiencing acute malnutrition, according to a recent nutrition survey by World Concern.

The Maasai people are nomadic pastoralists, who keep large herds of cattle, which provide for their economic and food needs. Between June and September of 2000, approximately 2,000 head of cattle had died and an estimated 250,000 cattle were under extreme drought stress. Many families had lost between 40-50% of their herd.

Families are using a variety of strategies to cope with the current drought. Most have reduced their number of meals per day, increased their consumption of potatoes, which are available in the highland areas of Mau, and substituted their regular diets with a light, salted porridge made from relief maize.

Increased illegal eating of wild game like giraffe and eland, which was traditionally part of the Maasai diet, and the deforestation of acacia trees for charcoal have also been reported.

World Concern, a Seattle-based non-profit, relief and development organization, has been working with the Maasai people to implement drought relief programs such as food distribution, cattle de-stocking and rehabilitation of silted water reservoirs. The recent rains bring hope, but until they prove steady and crops are harvested, relief work in the area will continue.

For more information, or to contact World Concern, see their website at: www.worldconcern.org