The carcasses of cows killed by the drought in northern Kenya lie outside a village in Mandera County. Successive failed rainy seasons have devastated the area's livestock.

By Nasra Hussein

It is a hot and dry afternoon in one of the far-to-reach villages in Mandera County. The effects of the ravaging drought are glaring. We can hardly see any green vegetation in this village, just dry shrubs.

On this day, we catch up with 18 month-old Abdifatah, a 5^th born in a family of six children. He is in the company of his mother Habiba and 3-year-old brother Adnan.

Abdifatah appears healthy and strong as he clings to his mother perhaps to hide from the scorching sun. His brother also seems to be in a lively mood as he watches his younger brother sheltering in the embrace of their mother. It seems as though the two young brothers share an inseparable bond.

Their mother looks at them lovingly and tells us the journey she has walked with her two children has not been an easy one. Habiba says that seven months ago (December 2022) when she took the two boys for a community health outreach organized by Save the Children, she believed it was just a routine check-up.

18-month-old Abdifatah enjoys the warm embrace of his mother while in the company of his older brother.

“What I thought was a routine check-up ended up with a malnutrition diagnosis not only for myself, but for the two boys as well. Had I not gone for the health outreach, there is no telling what might have happened to me and my children. It scares me whenever I remember just how malnourished the three of us were and we didn’t even know the seriousness of the matter,” says Habiba.

During the screening, Abdifatah was found to be having a Mid Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) of 12 cm and a weight of 7.5 kgs, his brother Adan had MUAC of 11.8 cm and a weight of 11 kgs while Habiba’s was measuring 19.2cm.

Habiba says she was informed that they were all malnourished and needed to be enrolled into the outpatient therapeutic program to receive immediate nutritional care to boost their health and improve their nutrition status.

“We were given peanut paste on a bi-weekly basis when the health workers would visit the outreach site. In addition, I was also enrolled into the unconditional cash transfer program and was given Ksh 8,250 for 3 cycles. This money has helped me buy food for my family as I am currently the sole breadwinner,” she says. “Most of our livestock died, so my husband made the hard decision of taking the few remaining ones to Ethiopia in search of water and pasture. I am really grateful because if it was not for this help, we would not have recovered.”

According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)’s Short Rains Assessment Report, food security situation continues to regress in the Arid and Semi-Arid Land (ASAL) counties in Kenya. The population facing acute food insecurity and consequently requiring humanitarian assistance has increased to 4.4 million from the 3.5 million people identified in July 2022 following assessment of the long rains season. This is a clear testament of the declining food security in Kenya’s 23 ASAL counties. 

Additionally, the nutrition status of children and women has worsened due to prolonged drought. Over 970,000 children aged 6 to 59 months and 142,000 pregnant and breastfeeding mothers are currently malnourished compared to 884,000 reported in July 2022 (NDMA).

Mandera is among the counties with the highest number of people affected by the drought crisis. To address the effects of the drought, Save the Children Kenya received support from member pooled funding under the Kenya Humanitarian Funds - Horn of Africa Food Insecurity Response project. The funds are being used to support the scale-up of health and nutrition interventions through cash transfers, integrated health and nutrition outreaches (services offered include immunization, deworming, ante-natal and post-natal care among others), child protection, water, hygiene and sanitation (WASH) programs and training and supporting of Community Health Volunteers.

The identification, management and treatment of acute malnutrition in Kenya is largely facility-based thus for pastoralist communities  the distance to health facilities contributes to low access to nutrition and health services, especially during the ongoing drought. Notably, the severe acute malnutrition and moderate acute malnutrition admission trends continue to increase attributed to high defaulter rates and no proper defaulter tracing mechanism in place.