Bundit stands outside his village under the hot sun looking at animal carcasses, an effect of the climate change.

By Marion Kwambai and Feisal Bulale

Bundit Lehus, 80, points at a pile of ash next to his house with his walking stick, he holds back tears as he explains to us this is where he burns his dead livestock every day.

The husband of four wives with over 40 children lives in a village in Wajir North. He is among area residents who have been greatly affected by the ongoing drought. He tells us that all his goats have been wiped out and he has only 7 calves left out of over 100 cows he initially had before the drought hit.

“I wasn’t able to sell my cows; their body condition was so bad that no one would buy them in that condition.   When they started dying, there was nothing I could do - I felt devastated. I did not know how my family could survive without our only source of livelihood,” says Lehus.

Over the last four months, Lehus and his household have only been surviving through cash assistance provided by Save the Children.  So far, he has received 5,000 Kenya shillings per month for four months now.

Despite receiving this money, Lehus tells us that this is not enough to feed his large family. He has to distribute this money between his four wives, which means every one of them gets very little money to buy food.

“I am very concerned for my children. The very young ones I had to send them away to my relatives because I realized their nutrition situation would only get worse here.  I only hope they will be safe there. It was such a hard decision to make as a father,” he says.

“When this money stops coming in, I do not know how else my family is going to survive. I hope the rains come soon. The few calves I have will die otherwise.  And then what happen to me?” Adds a distraught Lehus.

Abdi Bashir, the Assistant Chief in Fullow Sub County, Wajir North says residents here have not seen rain in 4 years. In his village, he had 120 households but since the drought worsened, most of the residents have moved in search of water and pasture for their livestock.

“There’s only less than 50 people left here in this village. Children are the most affected now and most of them have been diagnosed with malnutrition. Animals that provided milk for these children have died, there’s no source of protein for them.”

“There is one school here, but the nearest borehole is 34 kilometers away, you can imagine just how long it takes these children to go back and forth. Education cannot be a priority when they have other pressing issues such as food and water,” says Abdi.

Abdi however says that the cash assistance has really helped the remaining residents of the village.

According to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET), the impacts of consecutive below average rainfall seasons, including below average livestock production and sale value, livestock deaths, high staple food prices, conflict and insecurity, is likely to drive a continuation in emergency outcomes as current planned humanitarian assistance is unlikely to mitigate the further deterioration of acute food security among households.

Save the Children through the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) and funding from USAID has been working with Woman Kind Kenya (WOKIKE), a local partner, to provide humanitarian assistance to communities affected by the ongoing drought through integrated health outreaches, cash assistance, rehabilitation of boreholes, provision of animal feeds and animal vaccination.

Find more information on our interventions to help drought affected communities thanks to the support from BHA: