Kajiado County is one of the ASAL counties in Kenya seriously hit by the ongoing drought and famine. The situation is an added burden on already worse state of food and nutrition security in the area. Primarily inhabited by the Maasai community, the main source of livelihood is livestock keeping which is equally the most affected area owing to the aforementioned prevailing conditions and other accompanying complexities.
We conducted a community engagement at Enaudot Community aimed at achieving a sustainable economic empowerment program among women for sustained well-being in line with the organization’s goals. Prior to our field visit, we initiated community mobilization mainly targeting women through key community leaders including church leaders and community elders.
Our engagement was in two phases, that is, problem identification and suggested solutions by the
members of the community. The engagement focused on problems that have direct impact on/associated with livelihood of the members of the community.
Problems Identified
Water shortage
They directly use this water including for drinking without any form of prior treatment further putting the population at risk of other infections. Almost all boreholes have since dried up, donkeys that could be used to carry water have all died and no source of income to buy water from the vendors.
One of the few remaining water sources as at the time of our visit.
Death of livestock
Almost all the cows, donkeys and sheep have died due to the ongoing drought leaving them with no sources of food, i.e., milk and meat. Few cows left remain at highest risk of dying since they are unable move out of the homestead to look for any form of pasture. The only surviving animals are the goats that can still feed on the shrubs.
Acute food insecurity:
Most of the households can only manage one or no meal in a day while they run out of coping strategies. With no school-feeding program in place currently, most pupils are unable to be in school since they have to share whatever is available at home at once. Currently, the main diet is porridge enriched with cooking oil. Ugali is not even an option since there are no vegetables or meat and require much more flour.
Shift of livelihood burden to women
Women are the homemakers in this community and with the diminishing sources of livelihood; they now have to go out of their way to provide for the entire family. The situation has been worse since sand harvesting and charcoal burning that the male members engaged in were out-lawed. Women have only the option of selling firewood to provide for the entire family.
Lack of school fees due to the loss of livestock
In the forum were two young women who have dropped out of college education.
Proposed Solutions
- Water supply and storage facilities: this is the most urgent need for now as they foresee the wells drying up in less than a month. The indicated that the storage facilities would be important even for future planning since the boreholes are not reliable in the area.
- Productive food security strategies: the women are positive and wish to involve in sustainable economic activities as a way of empowerment. The activities suggested include;
- Goat brokering: They indicated that initial capital for this would be of great help. The idea is specifically on goats since the goats survive even during dry seasons.
- Bee keeping during favorable seasons.
- Flour and food retail business: there was a specific suggestion on installation of a flour miller since there is none around.
- Table banking from the businesses.
- Education support for the girls in tertiary institutions for sustainability of women empowerment.
Follow Up Meeting
During our follow up on the various empowerment activities initiated in Enaudot, Kajiado county, our beneficiaries organized a cultural thanksgiving ceremony to express their gratitude for all the life changing opportunities offered to them since we embarked on an empowerment journey with them. The event also presented us with an opportunity to bring the men on board for the success of our engagement going forward, considering prior engagements were majorly women centered.
From our previous engagements, we are glad to report that;
- The various household are already harvesting fresh vegetables from the kitchen gardens, hence boosting household dietary diversity and food security.
- Water storage facilities have been delivered to help reduce distances and time spent looking for water. They suggest that having a dam in the neighborhood in future will positively complement the storage tanks offered for sustainability of gardens and livestock.
- There has been a positive mindset on child education and they are now willing to give the children equal opportunity to go to school. They request for scholarship opportunities for their children.
- The youths are now willing to engage in various income generating activities if such opportunities arise.
Joint engagement session led by our Director, Evlynn Ndilu.
One of the 10 tanks delivered and installed
Some of the immediate proposals from the engagements based on resources available are as follows;
- Parents may utilize their assets (cattle and land) in order to sustain their families and keep their children in school.
- Use of donkeys and cattle to fetch water from the nearest source to refill their tanks before a lasting solution is in place.
- Consent and opportunity for women to own goats make decisions since women are not allowed to own cattle according to their traditional norms while burden to provide for the family is mainly left for the women.
- Engaging the youth in economic activities as well as offer support to the children on economic empowerment.
- Equal opportunities for both the boys and the girls in education.
They proposed and requested assistance in digging the dam dipper to curb water shortage since water remains to be the deterrence to various productive activities.
They all agreed to empower their youth, offer equal education opportunities for both their boys and their girls and the men of the community gave their consent for women to own goats giving a greenlight to our proposed goat project for the women.