Help Kenyan Pastoralists Build Climate Resilience

This report is being sent to friends of Children Peace Initiative Kenya who have kindly donated on GlobalGiving to our work with pastoralists in Northern Kenya.

The project helps herders from the Pokot and IlChamus tribes to collaborate against the common threat from climate change and so far our appeal has raised $1,725 from 17 donors. Thank you! Your donations have enabled us to hold discussions with herders from the two tribes, which I will discuss in this report. We call this process "fora peace outreach."

We would also recommend that you visit the blogs of Olivia, a graduate student at the Fletcher School who worked with us in Kenya this past summer as a Peace Fellow. Olivia attended the outreach meetings with herders and provided some fascinating insights into their thinking. They clearly understand the threat from climate change to their tradititional way of life.

This is one of the most unique projects undertaken by CPI Kenya because it reaches actual perpetrators of conflict - the warriors/herders. The fora peace outreach gives them an opportunity to discuss the environmental challenges they are facing and describe how they are reacting and coping.

They noted that unlike in the past, when they used to rely on rainfall, they can no longer depend on the rain season patterns, which have become very unpredictable.

The typical dry or rainy seasons have changed dramatically. The rainy seasons are very irregular, affecting not only the health of animals but humans as well. In addition, water sources and pastureland for grazing has significantly reduced due to desertification and flooding. Herders described how their cows are starving and dying at higher rates because edible vegetation has been replaced by poisonous weeds. Healthy vegetation has dried off or has been washed away during floods.

Flooding is definitely on the increase. In one example, flooding around Lake Baringo washed away several square kilometers of pastureland where IlChamus herders used to take their animals to graze. Today, they must travel longer distances to the mountainous areas for pasture. This is where they have faced conflict with the Pokot warriors, who also take their animals beyond their normal boundaries in search of greener pastures.

This has consequences. For example, in seeking to avoid conflict with their Pokot neighbours, the Ilchamus herders steer clear of a lot of fertile land which is thus not used by either of the two neighboring communities. They call it "no-man’s land"

One good development: Herder/warriors who have participated in past CPI meetings acknowledge that our peacebuilding efforts in the last few years have helped reduce the incidences of conflict. Indeed, it appears that some “no-man’s land” is becoming more accessible. This is encouraging!

Coping Mechanisms

CPI Kenya used the fora outreach camp to help participants identify coping mechanisms to deal with the challenges from climate and drought.

Both communities agreed on the need to control grazing so as to preserve pasture land for use by cows during periods of drought. They also described alternative livelihoods they have pursued to contribute to household income—including small-scale farming (mainly by IlChamus), bee-keeping, charcoal burning, and retail shopkeeping.

The CPI Kenya team suggested that sharing resources between the two tribes might provide more herders with pastureland and water, while also increasing cohesion. The idea was welcomed, although they will need to clarify how this can be achieved without creating further unnecessary conflict. We are finding that there is a much greater chance of conflict between herders who have not yet been introduced to our CPI inter-community peace program. The two groups of herders also expressed their interest and willingness to meet with other groups.

If funding permits, CPI Kenya hopes to build on these outreach discussions and implement a cow camp exchange program with Pokot and IlChamus next year. If successful, that would open the way to concrete discussions on sustainable ways of dealing with conflict and coping with climate change.

We will keep you informed and thank you again for your support!

Monica and the CPI team in Kenya