Just outside the town of Isiolo I visited a town where I met Mrs Kalo Roba who told me her story. Mama Roba used to be a pastoralist like many others in the north and she was very successful with her livestock. She had 160 goats and 7 donkeys which made her a wealthy woman until cattle raiders stole all of her livestock and with her husband she moved into the Isiolo area and started to learn how to farm.
She was allocated a small plot of land by the elders of the tribe and is trying to farm despite the lack of water in the area. The March rains failed and the whole community is hoping and praying that the October-November rains arrive. Mama Roba is farming maize, beans, cow pea and cassava although it is increasingly difficult to the lack of water. The community is building structures or bunds to capture the expected rain water as it runs down the slope in a couple of months. Mama Roba has dug approx 200 holes roughly 1 metre deep and ½ metre wide where she has planted her seeds and added manure in the parched earth. Now she sits and waits for the rains.
The situation in the village is made even harder by the ongoing ethnic tension between the Samburu and Turkana which often explodes and the night before my visit seven people were killed in a livestock raid that was allegedly carried out by members of the Samburu tribe. These guys are well armed as small arms move freely in the region near Somalia and 50 bucks buys you an AK47 in the Isiolo Market which makes the raids violent and lethal.
The community is doing its best to resolve the conflict and has established peace committees which contain men and women from both tribes which meet weekly and provide a forum for dialogue. There is also a monthly dialogue between the tribal elders who discuss how they can the violence.
I’m proud of the contribution that we’re making in collaboration with ActionAid Kenya with the mobilisation of a Protection Advisor from Australia who is in the region for a month to assess the risk that the violence presents to the community and how women in particular can develop strategies to prevent and respond to the violence to enable themselves to protect themselves.
Amidst this cocktail of violence and drought the people get on with their lives with support from ActionAid. In the middle of it all Mama Roba begins another day, working hard and hoping for rain.
