Kenya: surviving the drought

Gabriel Murwa and his wife with their last remaining cow from a herd of 100. The others have all died. [Richard Wainwright]

In Kenya, drought is a fact of life and farming methods are adapted to make efficient use of every drop of water. But droughts are now more frequent and more severe

CAFOD supports the Catholic diocese of Kitui, in southern Kenya, in its work to help people adapt to cope with the changing climate.

“There was much rain when I was little but it keeps getting less year by year,” Martha Munyao told CAFOD.

Martha lives in Mulango village, which has no permanent water source. When successive droughts stretched the community to its limits, villagers appealed to the Diocese for help to build a well.

The new well has made a huge difference to villagers’ lives.

Martha says, “Before we had the well we’d have to walk five kilometres or so to the river to get water, so we wasted so much time.

"Life has improved as we can all spend more time on doing things other than collecting water – like working on the land, terracing the soil and planting fruit trees.”

“The water is in the well all year round, even during drought, so last year we were fine here. We helped our relatives and people who were not so lucky. Without the well, we would have had to beg for water and food.”

Bread of life

The diocese also supports small projects to help people earn money to buy food and other necessities in hungry times.

The Wii bakery near Kitui is one of these. The bakery is run by 11 women, all guardians of children orphaned by AIDS. The money they make selling bread means they can afford food, clothes and school books for the children in their care.

Irene Kalumu Wambua said, “The bakery assisted us during the drought to get at least some food every day. Flour was more expensive but we baked more and sold more, so it was OK.

"We could give the children breakfast – many people were going without any food."

The group bakes 250 loaves of bread a day for sale in the local area and has plans to expand to cover a wider area.

Esther Kimanzi, who cares for three orphans, said, “When I was young, the weather was good and we never went hungry. When I was bringing up my children, the situation was not so bad.

"There would be drought one year but then several years without. When my children had children, that was when the situation started to get worse and the rain became very little.

“We appreciate the support from the diocese especially during the time of drought because we were able to get just enough because of the bakery.”