‘Our Children are Next’ Fear Kenyans as Drought Wipes Out Livestock

In drought-hit northeastern Kenya, villagers have been forced to drag their dead livestock to distant fields for burning to keep the stench of death and scavenging hyenas away from their homes.

Mandera county along Kenya’s borders with Ethiopia and Somalia has seen no rain since May and is now on the point of a full-blown water emergency.

“I have lost all my cows and goats, and burned them here,” Bishar Maalim Mohammed, 60, a resident of Tawakal village, told AFP.

In his village, where most are pastoralists relying heavily on their animals, the only remaining bull can no longer stand. He has lain in the same spot for nearly a week, severely dehydrated with bones protruding through his skin, as his owner watches helplessly.

In the nearby town of Banissa, the man-made watering hole that once held 60,000 cubic metres of water is dry, leaving a barren expanse that children have turned into a playground.

Herds of goats, cattle and camels must now trek up to 30 kilometres (20 miles) to the nearest watering hole at Lulis village, jostling for the remaining water that officials are rationing.

“In two weeks this water will be finished… we are in a very bad state,” said local resident Aden Hussein, 40.

More than two million people across 23 counties in Kenya are facing worsening food insecurity after the October–December short rains failed, with rainfall two-thirds below average.

The National Drought Management Authority has placed about nine counties on alert, while Mandera county is at the “alarm” phase, one step short of an official emergency.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network recently said 20 to 25 million people in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia need humanitarian food assistance, more than half because of drought.

“Our children are the next ones who are going to die,” said Maalim Mohammed in Tawakal.