TITLE:
Drought Impacts on Community Livelihoods in the Upper Ewaso Ng’iro Basin, Kenya
AUTHORS:
Bancy Mati, Amos Karithi, June Kimaiyo
KEYWORDS:
Drought Impacts, Communities, Livelihoods, Laikipia, Isiolo, Meru, Kenya
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.11 No.12,
December
19,
2023
ABSTRACT: Drought is the most common
of all natural disasters in Kenya, in terms of the large areas covered,
populations adversely affected and socio-economic impacts. The Upper Ewaso
Ng’iro Basin of Kenya is a drought-prone zone, lying on the lee slopes of both
Mt. Kenya and Aberdares range. This study sought to determine opinions of
communities on drought and its impacts on their livelihoods. Baseline data were collected from published
reports and literature reviews augmented with
information gathered through interviews with communities and key informants.
Field data were collected mainly in the three counties of Laikipia,
Isiolo and Meru, utilizing semi-structured questionnaire surveys. A total of 187 respondents were interviewed of which
150 were community members and 37 were policy makers. The typologies of
community respondents interviewed included small-scale farmers, large
commercial farmers, pastoralists, conservancies, water user associations and
conservation groups. It was found that drought is a serious disaster in the
Upper Ewaso Ng’iro basin, which has been escalating. Communities experienced negative impacts of drought, with the
biggest problem being water scarcity, closely followed by food and fodder shortages and poor incomes from farming. Other problems include spikes in
livestock theft, loss of livestock from diseases and shortage of pasture.
Conflicts over water and pasture escalate during droughts and crime increases
due to lack of on-farm employment
opportunities. Since drought events are natural phenomena expected to happen
any time, there is need to identify how to improve local capacities in drought
preparedness, adaptation and resilience.