Drought Insurance Helps Some Kenyan Herders, Others Wait for Aid
- Anthony Langat
- Mar 7, 2017
- 1 min read
Along a dusty road between the northeast Kenyan town of Garissa and the village of Kasha, the carcasses of dozens of cows and goats lie rotting in the heat.
The ground is bare and trees are losing their leaves due to a drought that has persisted for months. There is no pasture for livestock and the foliage they have been eating is becoming scarce.
Some 2.7 million people across half of Kenya's 47 counties have been affected by the drought, which the government recently declared a national disaster.
Kasha village lies 7 km (4.3 miles) north of the Tana River, which provides drinking water for the community's livestock. Every morning, Hussein Ali's remaining eight cattle and 15 goats head to the river bank where they graze on plants and leaves.
"Tree leaves are all that we have for our cattle to eat now - they go to the river in the morning and come back in the evening," said Ali.
USAID/Riccardo Gangale