Pastoralists urged to share resources as drought persists

Residents who practice pastoralism in Wajir county have been urged to share the available resources as the drought season persists.

Governor Ahmed Abdullahi said this was important in order to avoid clashes, as pastoralist communities scramble for the limited resources like water and pasture during the dry season.

“I call upon our community to embody the spirit of brotherhood and compassion during these difficult times. Let us kindly share whatever resources that are available peacefully. We don’t want conflicts arising out of the drought situation and we urge everyone to be their neighbour’s keeper,” the county chief said.

"No life should be lost during this drought season as a result of communities scrambling over resources," he added.

In the past, these conflicts have resulted in fatalities, destruction of property and evictions, as communities try to protect their boundaries and resources.

The governor spoke to the press on Wednesday after chairing a county steering committee which brought together state and non-state actors to establish a comprehensive drought mitigation plan.

He was accompanied by, among others, county commissioner Karuku Ngumo.

A spot check in the subcounties revealed some water pans have dried up and residents are now getting back to boreholes.

But over use of the boreholes has led to frequent damage and need for repair.

The governor said to mitigate this, his administration was purchasing borehole equipment to ensure timely fixing when they break down.

“We have set our systems to start planning appropriately and also to start intervening in the worst hit areas by providing water to those who have no water, because their boreholes have broken down or the pans have dried up,” he said.

Planning has been largely disrupted by the delay in finalising budget laws, occasioned on the pending court cases.

“You are very well aware that when the County Allocation of Revenue Act was passed, the county assembly forum took us to court and the court injuncted us from passing the supplementary budget that we wanted to in the manner that we had envisaged. We are still handling that in court,” he said.

“You are also aware that recently the Controller of Budget also said county governments cannot pay bursaries and it is also another matter that we are trying to handle to resolve which might also delay our access to those funds to have students that need them,” he added.

The latest drought situation report by the National Drought Management Authority in January indicated that Wajir is in the alert phase, with widespread dry conditions.

Last week, NDMA boss Haret Aden said the Authority has embarked on mitigation plans as a result of the depressed October -December rains of last year and the previous rain season.

“Yesterday we had a county leadership up to the subcounty, as well as non-state actors operating in this county in a bid to try and map up the various interventions as well as the various hotspots,” Aden said.