After ravaging drought, Marsabit herders now battling depression
A camel carcass by the Kambinye Road on November 7, 2021. Drought has taken a toll on the livestock in the area including the resilient animals such as camels and donkeys.
The ongoing drought in Kenya is not only a threat to livestock and wildlife but also the mental wellbeing of herders in the arid and semi-arid areas of Northern Kenya counties.
Residents of Kambinye sub-location in Laisamis sub-county on Sunday decried the rapidly accelerating mental health issues due to the impacts of climate change and the worsening drought situation in the area.
The Kambinye sub-location acting Assistant Chief Mustafa Tibiwa told Nation.Africa that pastoralists households in his area of jurisdiction are currently grappling with shock, depression and anxiety over the continued mass death of their animals.
“We’ve started witnessing escalating mental health issues among the herders whose livestock have succumbed to lack of pasture and water in this area,” Mr Tibiwa said.
Speaking during the relief food distribution by Dawa Muslim Agency and Mountain of Mercy in the area, he said most of the herders who owned hundreds of goats and sheep have been left empty-handed after losing nearly all their animals to drought.
He feared that if no immediate and well-coordinated interventions are put in place to address and tackle the drought impacts such as mental health holistically, people might lose their lives in the region.
Mr Tibiwa added that more than 200 households in the area are facing acute water and food scarcity thus driving them on the verge of despondency.
During the visit, the Nation spotted carcasses of livestock that succumbed to drought even near manyattas in Kambinye One and Kambinye Two areas.
Elchute Gabana, a resident of Kambinye, related how life has continued to get unbearable as they only had to entirely depend on water trucking services.
Mostly unreliable
Daily, they get 60,000 litres from three water bowsers from Loglogo town about 60KM away with each water bowser with a 20,000 litres capacity costing Sh15,000.
Water delivery by the water bowsers donated to the area MP Mussa Arbelle is mostly unreliable.
Residents of Kambinye sub-location in Laisamis Sub-county during a relief food distribution by Dawaa Muslim Agencies and Mountain of Mercy on November 7, 2021. Most of the herders in the area are reported to be battling depression due to loss of livestock to the ravaging drought.
Halamayo Matacho, a mother of four, said that lactating mothers were bearing the brunt of the ravaging drought due to undernutrition and worry over what to feed their children as milk production from their animals had also drastically declined.
She said that they have been forced to skip several meals as the coping mechanism for the biting drought.
They also depend largely on rice and cabbages as their staple without proteins since they no longer get milk and meat as most of the animals moved far away in search of pasture.
With regards to the squalid living conditions in the area, the Dawa Muslim Agency and Mountain of Mercy Representative Salim Vayai appealed to the government to not only provide relief food and water to the affected persons but also take care of their mental wellness.
“For the last two days, we were here in Kambinye sub-location we’ve barely seen any drought interventions by the state despite the extreme despondency we’ve seen,” Mr Vayai lamented.
Heat-related morbidity and mortality
He was saddened by an incident where a woman in labour nearly died in Kambinye II area due to lack of health facilities in the area and had to be transferred to Laisamis Level 5 Hospital, about 150 kilometres away.
He also wondered why government presence was not felt in the area despite drought being declared a national disaster by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
His sentiments were echoed by Marsabit Muslims Leaders Forum Chairperson Ibrahim Moshe.
Marsabit County NDMA Coordinator Henry Mustafa told the Nation during a relief food distribution and Dirib Gombo area in Saku-sub county two weeks ago that the forecasted number of persons affected by drought was likely to rise from the current 160,000 to 200,000 people in 2022 in case the November short rains failed.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates an increase of 250,000 excess deaths per year between 2030 to 2050 due to the “well-understood impacts of climate change.”
The impact includes heat-related morbidity and mortality, an increase in vector-borne disease (dengue fever, malaria), increased respiratory illnesses, and morbidity and mortality rates due to extreme weather events.
The indirect health implications include illnesses related to food and water safety, under-nutrition related to food insecurity, malignant melanoma from ultraviolet rays exposure and chronic kidney dehydration.
The report indicates that there are also less-known, and often overlooked, effects of climate change including the risks and impacts to mental health.
According to the 2017 Lancet Report on Sustainable Development and Global and Mental Health, complexes can trigger post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD), anxiety, depression, complicated grief, survivor guilt, vicarious trauma, recovery fatigue, substance abuse, and suicidal ideation.
