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Kenya: Drought – Lamu Herders Ask to Access Private Ranches

Published

4 years ago

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Pastoralist communities in Lamu County are pleading with county officials to initiate talks with ranch owners so they can be allowed to graze their livestock on private land.

Almost all pasture in Lamu has been depleted by the drought and the growing number of animals migrating daily from Tana River and Garissa counties.

Speaking to journalists in Witu, Khalifa Hirbae, the chairman of the Lamu branch of the Kenya Livestock Marketing Council and Witu Pastoralists Community spokesperson, urged Governor Fahim Twaha to start talks with private ranchers.

Lamu has large tracts of land classified as ranches, which are fenced off for conservation and private development.

Some of the most notable are Amu, Koreni and Mkunumbi, Kibokoni, Nairobi and Bar’goni.

Mr Hirbae said that instead of watching their livestock die, they should be allowed to graze in the ranches, which he said have enough vegetation to sustain them for some time.

“Our animals are dying almost every day due to lack of water and pasture. As a way of curbing further livestock deaths, we feel the county can coerce the ranch owners to allow pastoralists to graze their animals there. We are suffering,” he said.

He also urged the county and national governments to offer financial support to livestock owners who are incurring losses from the drought.

“We have more than 300 livestock that have already died of hunger caused by the drought. You can imagine a single place like Nagelle losing more than 100 cows. We need support to cope with the adverse effects of drought,” he said.

Competing animals

Ali Suleiman, from Chalaluma village, supported the proposal for pastoralists to graze their animals on private land.

He said Lamu is struggling with limited pasture because of competing animals coming from neighbouring counties.

He urged local and national officials to control the movements of non-local herders.

He also appealed for the distribution of animal feeds during the drought.

“We have more than 300,000 livestock, mostly from Tana River and Garissa, and this is frustrating us. Non-local herders should be stopped from entering Lamu in search of water and pasture. All the available grazing corridors here are depleted,” he said.