Agribusiness
Kenya: Former Battlefields Along Kenya and South Sudan Border Turned Into Farms Once upon a time, Ms Emuria Aburo had a big herd of cattle. They were the pride of her home, her source of wealth and income, but in no time, they were all gone. A dawn raid by Toposa cattle rustlers in South Sudan on her village in Lochor Ekal and drove away her entire herd, never to be seen again. A similar fate befell Ms Nasuru Nyakou, also from the village, with her family’s 20 goats being part of the herd the Toposa raiders went away with. This is the story of 160 households in eight villages hit hard by militia attacks from neighbouring South Sudan.
Here, in Turkana West, the families that were left with nothing are now picking up the pieces. Taken up farming Through the Lokirierit Farmers Group, the villagers have taken up farming. “My family lost its only 20 goats, and now, we think, farming might just be our answer as the militia might not care much about the crops as they did our livestock,” said Ms Nyakou. Since last month, Ms Aburo has been travelling from her Lochar Ekal village to Lokirierit farm to clear a thicket on a one-acre piece of land overlooking the Mogilla ranges in Turkana West. With her ageing husband, five children, and two grandchildren,
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but with no cows, Ms Aburo knew that staying at home waiting for relief food — distributed intermittently — was simply not an option. So when the opportunity to transform the once battlefields to produce food during the rainy seasons, she was, understandably, among the first to embrace it. “It is on these slopes of Mogilla ranges where families either lost all or part of their livestock, the main source of livelihood, to militias. I have come here to survive, to get myself, something, back,” Ms Aburo told the nation.africa as she cleared a thorny thicket of Prosopis juliflora, locally known as the Mathenge shrub. She had tried a firewood venture after the livestock was stolen, but
www.afriagrimagazine.com | July-September Issue 2021
