Irrigation scheme provides food, water and peace

Kenya Red Cross Secretary General Abbas Gullet (left) introduces a farmer at Tot-Kolowa irrigation scheme to Deputy President William Ruto on Friday. With him is Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen (right). [Photo: Kevin Tunoi/Standard]

At the crack of dawn each day, Grace Krop wakes up and embarks on a 10-kilometre walk, descending the rough terrains of Kasat village to her farm at Tot-Kolowa irrigation scheme on the border of Pokot and Marakwet counties.

The irrigation project was established in 2013 to aid in peace-building efforts by bringing together communities to share water at Kerio River as a common resource.

It has significantly improved security in the area and retrogressive practices such as cattle rustling have reduced.

Mrs Krop is one in a group of 1,000 households who benefited from the project funded by the Kenya Red Cross. She plants food crops for both subsistence and commercial purposes.

 Krop grows watermelons, green grams, maize, millet and sorghum.

"I must be in the farm early and leave before noon when the heat sears. If you continue talking to me, I will lose a lot of time which I could have used to till my land," she tells The Standard team that found her harvesting green grams at the irrigation scheme.

Severe famine

The elderly woman says she previously planted water melons on her half-an-acre piece of land and sold them, fetching thousands of shillings, which she used to pay school fees for her children.

"Life is now cheaper compared to the time before the irrigation scheme was established. We now get food and money from the sale of our produce. Besides, peaceful coexistence between the Marakwet and Pokot communities has been enhanced through this project. More remarkably, we are living in peace because back then, this land was a battle field," she says.

Ordinarily, several regions in East Pokot in Baringo County and parts of Elgeyo Marakwet County in the semi-arid Kerio valley are ravaged by severe famine and residents are in dire need of food rations, with others resorting to eating wild fruits to keep biting food shortage at bay at this time of the year.

However, the situation has changed for the better following the initiative mooted two years ago by the Kenya Red Cross to bring to an end the perennial hunger in the area by making residents produce food and generate income on the vast land in the Kerio valley.

The initiative was not only meant to provide food for the starving families, but also bring together Pokot and Marakwet communities that had been living acrimoniously.

The two communities had been raiding each other for livestock. Most of the times the invasion was catastrophic due to human and property loss.

The Red Cross initiated the project to the tune of Sh245 million. Each of the two communities irrigates 500 acres on either side of the Kerio River.

Timothy Kirotich, another beneficiary of the irrigation scheme, narrates:

"Nowadays, I do not miss school due to lack of food or money for fees because we plant enough food and the surplus is sold."

Mr Kirotich says the health of the residents, who previously depended on food rations, has greatly improved because the scheme provides a variety of food crops for quality diet.

"It is as a result of this project that we live peacefully with our Pokot neighbours. There is sufficient food around," he notes.

Benjamin Kasatem, from Pokot community and who is also the chairman of the scheme, said the project has greatly reduced the cost of living in the area because of the availability of food.

Facing challenges

"A tin of maize used to cost over Sh150 but currently the same quantity retails at less than Sh60 following a bumper harvest," said Mr Kasatem.

The social integration brought about by trade and farming between the two former warring communities has led to peaceful coexistence, he said.

Nelson Bailenge, the secretary of the scheme, said the produce has been distributed by beneficiaries to their relatives to ensure they get food.

"We want to form a co-operative society and expand the scheme into a fully fledged micro-enterprise to improve our socio-economic status,"Mr Bailenge noted.

But the residents say they are facing a lot of challenges in controlling birds and animals, including livestock that invade their produce.

Area leaders also praise the project, saying it has fostered peace among the communities that fiercely fought for decades.

Uphold peace

"Red Cross did wonderful work by introducing this project because there is enough food for the population here and peace has returned," said Marakwet East MP David Bowen.

Kenya Red Cross Secretary General Abbas Gullet said the project has enabled residents in the area to be independent of food rations as they grow their own food crops.

"Most arid areas in Kenya depend on food rations but after conducting a feasibility study here, we found that one can feed themselves without any assistance. That is why we embarked on this project," said Mr Gullet.

Gullet said the society will oversee the project until a management committee involving residents from the two communities is constituted and operationalised. He appealed to the residents to uphold peace.