Women, children eat wild leaves as biting drought persists

In the blistering scrubland of Dub Goba Village in Marsabit County, where the horizon bends under a merciless, unrelenting sun, the traditional sounds of pastoral life have been replaced by a desperate stoney silence.

After a season of failed rains, the agro-pastoralist community is deep in the throes of a ravaging drought described as the worst in decades and which has reduced their livestock to scattered carcasses.

For 80-year-old Qabale Roba and her family, hunger is no longer a pang; it is a daily, agonising confrontation with the impossible. To silence the cries of her six children, Qabale turns to the only sustenance remaining, wild leaves.

When we enter her compound, we find her 10-year-old grandson, Guyo Dido, atop a Moringa tree (locally known as Shalkedha) plucking leaves. He is not engaging in child's play but rather gathering what will soon be the family's lunchtime meal.

Once done, Dido joins the grandmother under the shade of their house, where they separate the leaves from the stems before Qabale proceeds to boil them and adds a little salt. The leaves are from the Moringa tree, a drought-resistant, medicinal tree believed to have healing properties and one found in plenty in the Arid and Semi-Arid (ASAL) regions.

Soon after, Qabale cooks Ugali from what little flour she got from a well-wisher before the entire family joins her for what would be their first meal since morning.

"I am cooking the leaves from the Shalkedha tree because I do not have food in my house and the drought continues to persist... If the tree vanishes or becomes depleted, we do not know what we will do because our situation is dire," she says.

"The last time we got relief food from the government was in October last year, when we only got four kilograms of rice and some beans. That, however, did nothing to alleviate our suffering. Given that I am raising two children from my deceased daughter and four others that I have adopted, the food was depleted in two days."

Qabale goes ahead to explain that as a result of the climate change- induced drought, Dido has since dropped out of school, so he can stay at home and help feed the grandmother and siblings.

"He has to stay here and help with the climbing of the tree so we can get the leaves. If he is not here, we will all starve.

While her Qabale's choice to feed her family wild leaves is a desperate, dangerous and unsustainable survival strategy, it defines the new reality for thousands of families in northern Kenya- a region where the climate crisis has stripped away everything but the raw will to live.

Across the fence, her neighbour Qabale Kanchora is also reeling from the vagaries of hunger. The mother of five explains that to feed her family, she does odd jobs and undertakes housework duties in Marsabit town, but the worsening drought has made it hard for her to do so.

"Our biggest challenge is hunger brought about by the drought. We have nothing else to do because our lands cannot grow food due to the persistent lack of rainfall. We are now forced to work odd jobs just to afford enough for a meal, "Kanchora observes.

Adding, "The government, through Red Cross,s has been supportive. In October, it gave us rice and beans but we are now appealing for increased frequency in the food aid distribution. As the days continue, it is becoming harder to afford a single meal in a day, and I'm afraid that if the rains do not come any time soon, our lives are at stake."

She is now appealing to the government to support us through the provision of foodstuffs, water and in the establishment of programs to ensure that young children get nutritious food.

The realities faced by Qabale and Kanchora reflect the plight of women and children in the face of an unforgiving drought that has hardly hit the North Eastern region.

According to data by the Red Cross, women and children make up the bulk of the 2 million-plus people facing starvation as a result of the drought. Approximately 784, 000 children across the worst hit counties of Mandera, Marsabit, Isiolo, Wajir and Samburu are also acutely malnourished.

Their plight is also shared by Fatuma john who lives some 15 kilometres from the Dub Goba watering station and whose family is grappling with an acute water shortage.

On arrival at the water station to interview her, we are welcomed by the sight of a four-year-old girl literally kicking a filled water jerrican down the road. Frail but resolute, the child takes on the arduous task of getting the 20-litre jerrican from the community watering point to their home that is approximately one kilometre away.

"That is not something unusual for us. Everyone in the household must contribute to securing water, which is a precious resource," says Fatuma as a long queue forms behind her.

"So bad is the water shortage that Sometimes we are forced to alternate on how we fetch water in that if a home compound has four manyattas, only two will fetch water today and the other two the next day because if we all fetch, we may deny other members of the community," she continues, further explaining that one can only fetch a maximum of five jerricans in a day. 

This, she says, is still not enough to cook, clean, drink and even bathe for the community with large families. She, however, lauds the government's intervention in establishing a water station, which currently serves the community.

"For the longest time, we have been grappling with acute water shortages and have had to go looking for boreholes, but the government has at least set up this watering kiosk. Previously, a je water used to cost Sh50, but now, through the government's intervention, we can get the Sh5," adds Fatuma.

In a bid to alleviate the suffering of residents in Marsabit, the government, through the Red Cross ha intensified relief food distribution with the exercise targeting the most hit wards such as Sagante at Jaldesa.

On Saturday, the Red Cross conducted a food aid registration and distribution exercise in both wards. 124 households in Sagante benefitted from the distribution, with a similar number of people also receiving the food in Jaldesa.

"As the drought persists, our goal is to register the exact number of needy families and those that are at the highest risk of starvation to enable an impactful response to the problem," explained Red Cross County Coordinator Gregory Macharia.