By Marion Kwambai,

We find Esther and her 20-month-old daughter Susan, sheltering under an acacia tree away from the hot sun. They have just been attended to at the emergency integrated health outreach in Turkana Central.

Esther tells us that they had to wake up very early to do their domestic chores in time. Fetching water and wild fruits for her family’s dinner is the hardest; it takes them close to four hours to walk to and from the nearest water point as it is 6kms away from Kanyuda Village.

I have six children and most times we have had to sleep hungry because we could not find anything to eat; even the wild fruits are becoming scarce as days go by. The drought has made everything worse, says Esther.

Unlike other villages, Kanyuda has no markets or shops, making it hard for the villagers to buy food and non-food items. When in need, community members are forced to walk to the nearby village that’s 24 kilometres away, to buy essential food items such as maize, beans and vegetable oil.

Combined with the severe ongoing drought, unavailability of milk and lack of access to food items has led to severe food insecurity in this community.

A situation, which Esther believes, has led to the deteriorating health condition of her barely 2-year-old daughter Susan, who was diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition two weeks ago during a mass screening exercise supported by Save the Children.

My daughter is sick; she has had persistent diarrhoea for four days now. I would have loved to take her to Kangirisai Dispensary but it is too far, it would take me a whole day’s walk just to get to the dispensary and back, says Esther. “We would be forced to sleep hungry again because I wouldn’t have time to get water and mkoma.”

Susan was admitted to the outpatient therapeutic program with a Mid Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) of 11.1centimetres. Today, for her follow up visit, she has slightly improved with her MUAC of 11.4 centimetres. 

The outreach has really been of great help. My daughter has received treatment for the diarrhoea. I have also been given more sachets of the Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) for two weeks and I am sure she will recover. She is already feeling better.  During the mass screening, she was too weak but now I see great improvement in her health, says an optimistic Esther, further adding that she hopes the rains come soon to enable her get milk or vegetables for her children.

Dominic Ekal, a nutritionist with the Turkana County’s Ministry of Health who has been supporting these emergency integrated health outreaches in Turkana Central tells us that community members of Kanyuda Village entirely rely on the outreaches for health services.

Kangirisai Dispensary is the nearest health facility from Kanyuda and it is 19 kilometres away. The drought has led to competing priorities in the needs for the community here. They would rather look for food and water than seek medical attention, he explains.

He adds that the malnutrition caseloads in Turkana Central and Turkana North were very high; he attributes this to the ongoing drought. Being a pastoralist community, the community members entirely rely on their livestock for survival.

Right now, livestock body conditions have deteriorated. This deterioration means the market value for the livestock has gone down, there’s no milk for the children to drink and thus the spike in malnutrition cases, he says.

 The drought in northern Kenya has been very hard on community members like Esther. Save the Children and local partners are responding to the drought crisis in Wajir, Garissa, Turkana and Mandera Counties in a number of ways.

In Turkana County, Save the Children in partnership with the Ministry of Health is supporting emergency integrated health outreaches in Turkana Central and Turkana North Sub Counties, which have been severely affected by drought. The intervention in the two areas focuses on hard to reach areas where children do not have access to regular health care services. 

Services offered in the outreach include nutrition screening and treatment, immunization, treatment of minor illnesses such as fever and diarrhoea, as well as health education promotion.  

Cover Photo: Esther observes as a Community Health Worker uses the Mid Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) tape to gauge the nutrition status of her 20 month old baby. Photo: Marion Kwambai, Save the Children.

 Background / Project information

According to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET), the effects of a third consecutive below-average rainy season are resulting in deteriorating food security outcomes driven by the impacts of poor crop and livestock production, resource-based conflict, livestock disease and mortality, and the COVID-19 pandemic. In its annual Short Rains Assessment report released in February 2022, the Kenya Food Security Steering Group (KFSSG) reported that there are around 3.1 million food-insecure people in pastoral and marginal agricultural areas, a 48 percent increase since August 2021.

Multiple shocks driven by climate crisis have contributed to increasing vulnerability in the northern Kenya counties with pastoralists being among the worst affected households.

There is notable migration of pastoralist in search of water and pasture, a decrease in milk consumption at household level, drying of water sources and, increase in trekking distance to water sources. Multiple shocks driven by climate crisis have contributed to increasing vulnerability in the northern Kenya counties with pastoralists being among the worst affected households.

In light of the escalating crisis, Save the Children plans to scale up early action in the two counties of Turkana and Mandera currently at alarm phase with worsening drought situation as we scale up donor and stakeholder engagement for these two counties.