Devastating Drought In Kenya

December 31, 2017

Ole Ezekiel Katato

Long rains in my area usually start in March through April each year, and the rains would extend into May in a good year. Short rains spread between November and December but the latter is usually the wettest month. In 2014, the short rains did not do well but this did not worry me because I knew the long rains in 2015 would come in plenty. January and February 2015 passed and I was waiting for the special rain stars {INKOKUA} to bring the long rains in March as usual. For the whole month of March, I sat outside my Manyatta up to mid-night each day watching INKOKUA in the right place and direction in the skies as usual. Each day I watched as INKOKUA drifted down to the west without any signs of rain. The further the INKOKUA drifted away without any signs of rain, the more I lost hope. We were now in April and there were no signs of rain so I turned to the moon to predict rain. When a full green moon {Olonyori} as the Maasai call it, pops up from a certain angle, then we know there will be rain. I waited for a few days before the green moon finally emerged from the east. It was heart breaking because Olonyori did not take the right angle as I expected.

By end of April, I did not see or hear any other sign of rain that I knew of – a lion’s roar or a hyena’s noise at sunrise were all missing and everything went quiet on the land except for the hot scorching sun that had already dried up all the grass, shrubs and trees. I knew the special rain stars {INKOKUA} failed to bring rain, and when this happened, (the Maasai call it INKOKUA TENELUARIE INKISHU) I knew a devastating drought was ahead. After a few months, the situation worsened and in September, there was hardly any water or grass left.

My wife left home at 3:00AM with her donkeys to fetch water about 10 kilometers away each day, and returned home later in the afternoon. All women in different villages competed to reach the only available water point and if you came in late, you wait longer because the queue was long so many women returned home very late. The cows stayed for two days without drinking water because they could not walk the same distance to and from the water point every day. However, I used a trick; one day before the cows went to the water point, I moved the cows more than halfway towards the water point to sleep nearby to ensure I was the first to reach the water point on the third day. MidSeptember, the cows were getting weaker and weaker and I had to take a decision to save them from dying. My first option was to do surveillance in Tanzania. One morning I left towards Tanzania to see if there was grass and water on their side of the border. I walked for two days and crossed the border but I had to walk further into Tanzania and after another three-day’s walk, I found an area with water and grass. I returned back home and told my family that I would move the cows to Tanzania. After two days, I was set to start the journey with the cows so I retired to bed early so that I could wake up early the following morning. However, after mid-night, the rain woke us up and I was so happy that I would not move the cows after all. The rain was not expected at all but it was a big relief that it came anyway. The rain continued for another two days then stopped and the cows were okay with plenty of water and some little green grass, and the cows were a bit stronger again. In December, we had some rain for four days and it disappeared again so 2015 was a bad year with prolonged dry spells and harsh conditions, but thankfully, the cows survived because of the little rain in September and December.

As usual, 2016 started with a very hot January and February but I was optimistic that INKOKUA would bring the long rain in March/April because they failed the previous year. Unfortunately, this did not happen and I decided to move the cows to Tanzania in September. In Tanzania, things were not good because the president ordered all cattle from Kenya to return to their country. After a few months’ tension with the authorities there, I decided to bring the cows back home even though there was no rain. When I left Tanzania, some cattle from Kenya were confiscated by the Tanzanian authorities and we heard they were auctioned.

I arrived back home with the cows in November and the cows were a bit strong because they had water and pasture for the time I stayed in Tanzania. Fortunately, we had some little rain in December so 2016 was also a bad year because the long rains failed for the second consecutive year, but thankfully, the cows did not die.

In our cultural history, I have never seen or heard of INKOKUA failing to bring rain for two consecutive years and I was no longer sure if reading the skies would make correct predictions in future. The cows stayed at home in January and February 2017 but I moved them in March again after the long rains failed again for the third consecutive year. I moved the cows to Nairobi, Karen area and settled in some open space that was not occupied and it was partially fenced. There were a few other open fields adjacent to where I settled but they were fully fenced and guarded during the day. The Nairobi National park was also not far away and there was water in the river that ran through the park. I made some makeshift camp with polythene. The first few days after settling, I was worried that someone would show up to evict me from the space but fortunately, no one came. The place I settled was not large but there was some grass to last for some time.

After sometime, I realized that the grass would not last for long so I decided to look for other available options before the grass was over. The first option was to ask the security guarding the space next to me to allow me to graze the cows there and the second option was to take the cows into the park at night. I approached the guards but they totally denied me access into their space. Days were moving and I did not know what to do because I knew the park was very dangerous with wild animals, including lions.

In June, there was no grass left and I decided that I would take the cows to the guard’s space at night. The first night I entered the space at 10:00PM with the cows and grazed up to 4:00AM then took them back to the camp. I did this repeatedly for some time but the guards discovered my trick and I was almost evicted from that area but I asked them to understand my situation and forgive me, but not before giving them some money.

I had no other option but to take the cows into the park at night. I knew the danger but I had to do it to save the cows. I slept over the idea and after considering all the dangers, I decided to first explore other possible ways and make the park the last option. The following morning, I left the cows and went to town through Karen and alighted at Adams arcade and walked towards Lavington. After sometime I found a small space next to valley arcade where the cows could stay and I went back to Karen where the cows were. I spent the night, and the following day I moved the cows to the place I found in Lavington. Every day, I would take the cows out to graze on the road sideways until I returned them back to camp. There was a lot of danger of the cows knocked down by cars but the motorists were so kind to the cows and they did not harass them. I stayed in the streets of Lavington for a few weeks and the grass was over.

It was late July, there was no sign of rain yet, and there was no more grass for the cows. A Maasai who spent a night with me told me that the cows can get something to eat in Ngong forest and I was so relieved because I did not think about it at all. So the following morning I moved the cows to Ngong forest from the side of Ngong racecourse near Lenana. In Ngong forest, I could not get a space to build a makeshift camp because it was dangerous inside the forest and the only other available space was Ngong racecourse that was busy every day with horse riding. Therefore, I decided to live one day after the other; sleeping outside with the cows where darkness found us.

After two days, the forest guards arrived and ordered me to leave, but after negotiations, they left me alone after parting with some money. From that day onwards, different forest guards came after every one or two days. Some accepted money and left me alone but some were ruthless, beat me up, and told me to leave. For one month, I played hide and seek game with the forest guards because the forest was expansive; they got me one and took money and the other day I dodged them to avoid the harassment. Sometimes they chased me with a land rover and sometimes they threatened to kill the cows. But I loved the cows because they are intelligent like humans. When I made any sound at any moment, they all stopped gazing and raised their heads to look at me for instructions. When I whistled, they all ran towards the direction I was running, and I could only do that when I sensed danger. So the cows became my closest companions and they would not allow anybody else near them.

I was deep in the forest one day grazing the cows when one man appeared limping. He called me from a distance and I found that he had a broken leg and he was bleeding profusely. He asked me to give him my Maasai fabric to wrap his wound in order to minimize the bleeding and I gave him. He asked me the direction to Kibera and I showed him. Before he left, I asked him what happened and he told me that he was short by police near Lenana.

Another day while grazing in the forest, I saw a head of a man pop from a nearby hole but partially hidden by the shrubs. I went nearer to have a clearer view and I saw a man with a gun, and after a few seconds, two more men with guns came out of the hole. They stood there watching me and we did not talk to each other so I decided to follow the cows.

On a different day, one of the cows got into a snare and as I was struggling to free it from the snare, a group of over ten armed young men appeared. They told me to leave or else they will kill me that I obliged to save my life. I went to where the cows were but after half an hour, I came back to see what happened to the cow, but I only found blood stains on the ground; they slaughtered it very fast and disappeared with all the meat. I later realized that people from Kibera entered the bush to set-up snares, especially when the Maasai cows are around so they could get food to eat.

Therefore, I realized that I was in big danger from the forest guards, the armed robbers and the Kibera slum dwellers and I decided to take the cows back home to save my life.

I arrived back home with the cows in September and left to the Netherlands to attend a conference for two weeks. When I came back from the Netherlands, the situation was very bad and some cows were too weak to stand on their own. At night, I woke up several times to help weak cows to stand up so they did not lie down for a long time because they will not be able to stand up the following morning. Every morning I woke up early to help the cows to stand up, but the problem is that when they woke up, there was nothing to eat, so they continued getting weaker and weaker every day. I helped weak cows to stand up for two or three days and on the fourth day they died, so I watched as my cows died one after the other and in November, I lost all the cows to the drought except for one young female calf that I fed with goat milk and porridge.