FINAL REPORT - FSD Kenya

2.2 Difficulties in Garissa
Difficulties are here arbitrarily classified into general difficulties of the area and specific difficulties
affecting the respondent households. The general difficulties everyone in Garissa and could be due to
the difficult nature of the terrain or natural calamities; while the specific difficulties affect respondents
individually and are possibly the effect of the general difficulties.
2.2.1 What Are the General Difficulties Facing the People of Garissa?
The details of the difficulties briefly discussed in the following section are found in Annex 3.5.5(i, ii,
and iii) that shows how crisis after crisis have continued to affect the people of Garissa.
i. Difficult Environmental Conditions
The majority of the respondents in Garissa live under very difficult environmental conditions because
of the arid nature of the land. Apart from areas bordering River Tana with water and fertile soils, the
rest have poor soil conditions and unreliable rains that cannot support rain fed farming. Respondents
feel that with irrigation, some of the areas in Garissa could be productive. Apart from the low and
unreliable rainfalls, the area is also prone to floods which cause a lot of damages to infra-structure and
sources of livelihoods. Nomadism is the way of life in Garissa and cattle is the source of livelihood.
The environment can however support the keeping of camels and goats and individuals have to move
from place to place with their cattle in search of pasture
ii. Drought, Floods and famine
The people of Garissa just like their counterparts in Turkana and Kwale have continued to face two
major difficulties associated with weather changes. Garissa by nature is an arid area, but it can also
receive such heavy rains that top soils are washed away and roads are completely cut off or become
impassable.
Respondents report that the last case of floods similar to this current one (November 2006) happened
during the El-Nino rains of 1996 and the intervening period between 1996 and 2006 was a time of
drought. The drought was so severe that pastures had dried up and cattle died from either lack of food,
or eating the poisonous Mathenge 5 plant, thus reducing their numbers considerably. The floods of
2006 killed their remaining cattle and only a few of them have a single animal left. The animals used to
be the source of regular cash flow and their death has left their owners with no major source of
income. The majority have reportedly either migrated to refugee centres or to Garissa and Nairobi to
look for alternative source of livelihoods. Some homes have been wiped away and individuals have
gone to refugee camps or have built make-shift huts with polythene covers.
When floods or drought occurs, famine sets in and respondents rely mainly on relief food from relief
agencies or on alms from well-off relatives. The few people that practice subsistence farming around
Tana River are able to continue with their activities and get food stuffs but annual harvests are
generally low due to spoilage by wild animals. A few others undertake income generating activities
such as such as collecting and selling firewood, milk vending, groceries, and hawking to survive.
iii. Poor Infrastructure
Garissa town is located about 390 km from Nairobi with a good tarmac road. The rest of the locations
e.g. Mbalambala is 220 km and Dertu is 250 km from Garissa and have seasonal roads that are almost
impassable during rainy seasons. At the time of the study the road between Dertu and Garissa was
completely cut off and vehicles had to create new tracks making a one day journey into one of four
days.
5 Mathenge plant is an evergreen plant introduced by the government to fight against desertification.
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