{"id":114630,"date":"2026-02-09T08:50:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T08:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=114630"},"modified":"2026-02-09T08:50:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T08:50:01","slug":"drought-spreads-beyond-kenyas-arid-north-plunging-herders-into-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=114630","title":{"rendered":"Drought spreads beyond Kenya\u2019s arid north, plunging herders into crisis\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 20 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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The dozens of cow and goat carcasses scattered around Maria Katanga\u2019s family compound testify to the grinding impact of an ongoing drought on Kenya\u2019s pastoralist communities who rely on livestock for survival.<\/p>\n

Since August, the 24-year-old Maasai herder has lost more than 100 cattle and 300 goats to drought \u2013 and the animals still in her care are too emaciated to produce milk.<\/p>\n

Kenya has been here before, most recently in 2022 when a record drought decimated livestock populations and plunged pastoralists in the East African country\u2019s arid north and northeast into a hunger crisis.<\/p>\n

But now, as such\u00a0climate disasters\u00a0become more frequent, their impact is also spreading to areas that have traditionally not been deeply affected by drought such as Kajiado county, which borders the capital Nairobi and where Katanga lives.<\/p>\n

As the animals have grown weaker, their value has also shrivelled, Katanga\u2019s stepson Emmanuel Loshipae told Reuters.<\/p>\n

\u201cA cow that was being sold for 60,000 or 70,000 Kenyan shillings (before the drought)\u2026 is being sold for 5,000 shillings,\u201d Loshipae, 19, said.<\/p>\n

He added that the family had been forced into distress sales to pay for animal feed in the absence of grazing land.<\/p>\n

Local administrator Lemaiyan Samuel Kureko said groups of herders were moving further afield, even crossing the border into Tanzania, in search of pasture and water.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been droughts before in the region but this one is the worst,\u201d he told Reuters.<\/p>\n

Kenya\u2019s National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) warned last month that recurrent droughts were increasing competition for scarce resources and raising the risk of violent conflict.<\/p>\n

SOMALIA ALSO IN THE GRIP OF DROUGHT<\/h3>\n

The crisis has also hit countries in the Horn of Africa, with Somalia declaring a national drought emergency in November after recurrent seasons of poor rainfall.<\/p>\n

The United Nations World Food Programme warned last month that millions of Somalis were grappling with severe hunger, even as foreign aid cuts have hamstrung NGOs\u2019 capacity to respond to skyrocketing needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cMalnutrition is also alarmingly high with almost half of all children malnourished and in need of urgent treatment,\u201d WFP said in a statement.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the Kenya Meteorological Department released its forecast for the March-May monsoon, with Kajiado expected to receive near-average to below-average rainfall.<\/p>\n

Last month the NDMA said it had distributed cash aid to over 130,000 households in historically arid counties \u2013 mainly in the north \u2013 to help them cope with rising hunger due to the drought. But the relief measures did not extend to Kajiado.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo people have died yet, but the livestock are gone and the sun is getting hotter every day,\u201d administration official Kureko said. \u201cWe have been weakened to such a level that we can only pray for God\u2019s help.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The dozens of cow and goat carcasses scattered around Maria Katanga’s family compound testify to the grinding impact of an ongoing drought on Kenya’s pastoralist communities who rely on livestock for survival.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1972,16614,537,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-drought","category-kenya","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=114630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=114630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=114630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=114630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}