Migrating to the heart of Kenya in search of food

Joanne Thomas, Program Coordinator for Caritas Australia's Humanitarian Emergency Group, speaks of the current situation affecting millions in East Africa's drought and food crisis.

On Thursday we travelled 2 hours along the Nairobi – Daadab road, past Thea Astley’s fabled flame trees at Thika, but rather than continuing to the desperate situation of overcrowding at Daddab, we turned off to explore another community, a local Kenyan community in crisis, in Mwinge District. It’s a region in which Caritas has worked for several years on community development projects and is preparing to launch Emergency relief operations.

After picking up Father George at the Mwinge church and Christopher from the local government office, we travelled another 3.5 hours into the heart of one of Kenya’s evolving Emergency zones ....the community of Masevesereni.

Christopher spoke of his tribe’s challenges sharing limited land resources with the Somali pastoralists. Never before, in all the droughts of the region, had Christopher’s Kamba tribe been in a situation where they had to share resources with Somalis. Prior to now, the Somalis had never been forced to migrate so deep into the heartland of Kenya to find land upon which to graze their cattle and to survive.

The drought and struggle for food has turned this into a region of conflict. 300 homes have already been burnt here and people are frightened for their lives.

When we met the gathered community at Masevesereni they told us that many of the men had left for the larger towns of Thika and Meru, to look for work. The women, children, and elderly were left, subsisting on government rations. Normally these agro-pastoralists have their stored grains from previous seasons upon which to exist, however these had been raided in the current conflict with Somali nomads. When asked how much food they were receiving from the government, we learnt it was only 1/5 of the standard ration. There is not enough food being distributed to these regions.

This community is one of several for whom all predictions point to a deterioration over the next couple of months, and hence have been targeted by Caritas as communities in Emergency need of assistance.

For more information on the food crisis in East Africa and how you can help, please visit Caritas Australia's East Africa Crisis Appeal webpage >>