Turkana pastoralists struggle for survival as climate change bites

Manyattas submerged by Lake Turkana flooding left more than 10,000 people out of their homes. [File, Standard]

As climate change takes a heavy toll on nomadic communities, Turkana pastoralists like Ang’elech Losuru, 40, are confronted with the harsh reality of its effects.

Since losing most of his livestock in a recent drought, Losuru, a herder, sought refuge in Lake Turkana and now makes a living from fishing.

Losuru lost all his animals to the devastating effects of drought that had struck the area in recent years, rendering him and his family vulnerable to hunger.

“All my animals perished due to drought, leaving me with nothing to fend for my family. I am now impoverished. Those animals were my only source of livelihood, but they all died. I have nothing at the moment to survive on,” Losuru said.

Like hundreds of thousands of other Kenyans affected by the devastating impacts of climate change, which is causing prolonged droughts and floods to become more frequent around the world, Losuru was forced to adapt to this new reality.

Despite the change in his livelihood, he remains a pastoralist at heart, with hopes that his predicament may improve in the future.

He resorted to fishing in Lake Turkana as a last resort, although it is not his usual practice.

“I am a goat-keeper, and I take pride in that. I said to myself, instead of dying in this place, let me go to the lake and give it a shot. It will be my last hope for survival,” Losuru said at his home in Kalokol.

Between 2021 and 2023, Kenya faced its worst drought  in 40 years, enduring five consecutive failed rainy seasons, followed by devastating flooding.

More than 200,000 pastoralists like Losuru abandoned their way of life in Turkana County to try fishing.

For those who shifted from pastoralism to fishing, the latter has become a lucrative source of economic livelihood.

With climate models projecting an increase in drought-related shocks, the number of pastoralists switching to fishing is expected to rise, just as conflicts between communities are likely to become aggravated by competition for dwindling resources.

As environmental conditions worsen, even the most resilient pastoralists have been pushed to the brink. The Kenyan government most recently recorded 2.5 million livestock deaths.

“The population facing acute food insecurity has risen to 4.4 million people, according to the 2022 Short Rains Assessment Report.”

Meteorological agencies are not optimistic that the trend will change soon.

Lake Turkana, the world’s largest permanent desert lake, may provide part of the answer.

Despite an annual yield of up to 17,300 tonnes in recent years, Lake Turkana, the fourth-largest lake in Africa, holds the potential for significantly greater fish production, according to a recent study by the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI), commissioned by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

Located in the north-western dry lands of the country, however, where fish are not widely consumed, fishermen find it difficult to transport their catch, which perishes quickly, to the mouths of potential customers.

Fishermen complain that post-harvest losses have severely affected their businesses due to wastage.

The joint WFP and KMFRI study shows that nearly a third of the fish caught in Lake Turkana are lost along the value chain due to poor processing methods and limited access to storage and cold chain facilities.

Paulina Ekuuta, a mother of six, sells fish at local markets but has to discard whatever remains unsold at the end of the day.

“The money I use to purchase the fish often just goes to waste. It breaks my heart when I look at my situation and often go to sleep hungry,” Ekuuta said.

WFP, in collaboration with Unesco, Marsabit, and Turkana County governments, is launching a new programme to sustainably unlock the lake’s economic potential.

The five-year programme, funded by the Netherlands with complementary funding from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, takes a holistic approach, supporting the value chain from lake to plate.