African countries south of the Sahara are affected by desertification resulting from severe drought that has caused loss of human life and large scale displacement of populations (United Nations 1984). In Kenya, for example, most of 1999 has been a difficult year for many residents because of the crop failure due to lack of rain. Turkana District has been the most affected.
Apart from starvation, the drought has had the following effects on the residents of Turkana District:
• Creation of a sense of social disruption including large-scale panics that have led people to march to where food is rumoured to be available. As a result, families are separated, leading to a breakdown of social order;
• Crowding in the food camps that leads to explosive spread of infectious diseases;
• Death of domestic animals and the destruction of seeds for future crops;
• Malnutrition among children and even adults; and
• School drop-out and low participation especially among girls (Daily Nation, 29th January 2000; 9th February 2000).
The other equally important effects of drought have to do with lack of water for livestock and human consumption (Marx 1975). People are forced to walk long distances in search of water. In fact, the majority of people rely on distant and unprotected wells, boreholes and ponds to survive. In Turkana District, 75% of the households travel between 2 and 3 km to sources of safe water (GOK 1998). Even when they eventually get to the water points, they have to queue up because these are few (GOK 1998). Consequently, the scarcity of water poses environmental sanitation problems. In fact, 70% of the residents of Turkana District have no access to sanitation facilities of any kind. They tend to use the bush. This leads to contraction of water related diseases like typhoid, bilharzias and dysentery (GOK 1998).
The information available on rural Africa suggests that in food crises and famines, it is women who suffer the most. This is more so in pastoralist communities where women in addition to building houses, milking and watering livestock, have to perform their daily chores of child rearing and household tasks (cooking and fetching water and firewood) (Hay and Sticher 1981; IDRC 1981; Anderson and Brouch 1999). In addition, during the famine situation, women are less mobile because of their reproductive roles and are therefore unlikely to receive relief food or venture out to look for work in towns (IDRC 1981; Anderson and Brouch 1999).
Most of the literature available on the pastoralist communities in Kenya is found in government reports and daily newspapers. Very few empirical studies have been done on the subject. One such study related to the present study was conducted by Oxfam in 1991. This study looks at the involvement of agro-pastoralist women in livestock programmes in Africa. Using examples from pastoralist communities from different parts of Africa, the author observes that women play an important role in animal production; not only in dairying, but also in the marketing of dairy products, and in a whole range of animal husbandry activities, including the herding and watering of livestock and caring for sick and young animals (Wallace 1991).
A similar study was conducted by the same organization (Oxfam) but this time focusing on Turkana women and their contribution in a pastoralist society. Apart from stressing the importance of women’s labour in pastoral work, it goes further to reiterate the critical role of women in controlling food supplies (Wallace 1991). This study provides vital information for the present study in pointing to the fact that in order to effectively manage the food supplies even during the drought season, women have to preserve and process the food well.
Another related study was done by UNICEF. This study noted that despite women’s contributions to contemporary pastoral economy, the major decision-making power lies with the men. Men seem to control the economic resources by deciding which animals should be slaughtered, sold or even given for dowry (UNICEF/GOK 1998). Hogg (1989), however, gives perspective to the present study by highlighting the poverty inherent in pastoral communities and how this influences the capacity of individuals to deal with the drought situation. He postulates that the very wealthy people in the pastoralist communities survived the crisis for years relatively unscathed because they had already diversified their economic base so that although their herds and flocks suffered considerable losses, they had the support of non-pastoral incomes.
Odegi-Awuondo’s (1990) study is closely related to the present study because it looks at the indigenous patterns of adjustment to drought and famine among the Turkana nomads of Kenya. However, the present study goes further to take a gender analysis of how both men and women cope with the drought. Another related study is that by Nyanchoga (1999), which is of historical nature. It looks at the impact of ecology and colonialism on the socio and economic activities of the Turkana people as well as how they responded to the varied situations confronting them. The study, which spans from 1850-1963, concludes that despite the destructive nature of the colonial state and capital structure through de-pastoralism programmes, anti-raiding policies and forced labour and taxation, the Turkana were able to evolve various adaptive strategies that linked agriculture, wage labour and pastoralism.
Frat-kin (1991), in his focus on Arical pastoralists of Northern Kenya, looks at other adaptive strategies such as fishing, hunting and gathering. The gender analysis angle of the present study is, however, captured by Joekes and Pointing’s (1991) study that conducted a parallel analysis of women in pastoral society and investigated their points of vulnerability to changes in the political economy of pastoralism in East and West Africa. A further critical analysis of women’s position in the pastoral society is given by Hodgson (2000). Here, she challenges aspects of the patriarchal pastoralist among the primarily pastoralist peoples in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using diverse analytical frames, the review of literature on pastoralism in Africa documents the dynamism, complexity and historicity of pastoral gender relations and ideologies as well as the centrality of gender to the production of culture and history in pastoral societies. The present study joins in this debate by documenting evidence to support the significance of gender to not only livestock production but other domains of pastoral life.
Therefore, unlike many other studies outlined above, the present study distinguishes the gender-differentiated impact of drought in view of the fact that gender dictates differences in societal experiences between men and women. In this respect, the study has employed a gender analysis in examining the problems and challenges faced by people living within the famine-stricken Turkana District as well as the adaptive strategies employed by them.
