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Kenya: Climate change, urbanization has made us abandon pastoralism, Maasai elders say

Source(s): Kenya Broadcasting Corporation
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For close to two decades, Lazzaro Ole Saibulu was actively involved in the livestock trade across the Kenyan and Tanzanian border.

[…]

Due to persistent droughts that perennially wiped out his flock, Saibulu’s sole economic mainstay was disrupted. With the size of the flock gradually shrinking, the herder decided that the only way to save his livelihood was to change his occupation and relocate to ‘greener pastures’.

[…]

Ole Teum says frequent droughts and the ever shrinking land sizes have transformed pastoralism into an unsustainable venture in Narok and Kajiado Counties resulting in an unprecedented rise of Moran hawkers in the country’s major urban centres.

[…]

Former pastoralists are now cultivating potatoes, sorghum, sukuma wiki, cabbages, onions and tomatoes.  For instance the Kajiado County government has constructed 500 water pans to harvest rainwater for use by herders to irrigate crops, It has also started supplying herders with high-yielding crop seeds and training farmers on sustainable cultivation techniques, including more efficient water use,” says [Mary Seleina, university student]

[…]

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Hazards Drought
Themes Climate change Social impacts and social resilience Traditional and Indigenous knowledges
Country and region Kenya

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