Priscilla, Queen of her Cattle

She spoke to Ssanyu, our reporter on the ground in Kenya. Priscilla told ActionAid about losing cattle, the impact of the ActionAid PRRO programme and meeting elephants at the door.

Ssanyu: How has the drought affected you so far?

Priscilla: The few animals that were left were taken away by bandits just recently so we’ve been left as you see us here – with nothing. We have no livestock. We rely on wild fruits to survive.

Before we could rely on our livestock, but because we have lost all our livestock there is nothing to rely on at the moment

The wild fruits that we survive on are 1- very hard to get because you have to go into the bush, you have to climb trees and you have to find a way of shaking them down from the trees. Then once you collected them, the process of cooking them is very long. You have to boil them for no less than 12 hours because they contain poison. You have to boil until this poison that comes out in the form of something like oil, so you boil until that oil stops coming out then you have to cool it completely before you can eat it.

For the children, the fruits are just meant to make them feel that they have eaten – to make them feel full

The fruits have no nutrients so they children end up being malnourished but at least it enables them to survive.

Ssanyu: How are children coping with so little food?

Priscilla: For the children to cope with this drought, even those who are not going to school, are currently going to school because of the supplementary school feeding program. Because that is the only place that they are assured of one meal a day during lunch hour.Some children just go to school around the lunch hour even those that are not school children because they are very sure that they will be given food by the school administration, that they can share with their siblings.

Ssanyu: Has this been the worst drought you have ever seen?

Priscilla:

The worst thing about the current drought is that food prices have become very high - a kilo of maize flour goes for a 100 Kshs [USD 1.10], a kilo of sugar is 50 Kshs [USD 0.50]

In terms of severity the current drought is the worst that I have ever encountered because the previous droughts we have dealt with have only affected our livestock.

Ssanyu: How much cattle did you lose during this drought?

Priscilla: ‘My family had 20 cows; we lost all that to the drought. We had 30 goats and we lost all that to the drought. And we recently benefited from a donation from the church where we received one goat and that is the only livestock we have at present’.

Ssanyu: What food did you receive from ActionAid yesterday through the PRRO programme and how will you ration it?

Priscilla: I received about 40 kilos of food and because of the number of people I am feeding and by taking the minimum amount of food per day the ration lasts for about 20 days. Then we will have another 10 days to wait before the next distribution. It is then that we survive on wild fruits as we wait for the next distribution’.

Ssanyu: How have the cattle raids affected this community?

Priscilla: It is true that cattle raids have been a problem in this community.

If you don’t have your livestock stolen during the day you still run the risk of having that livestock stolen at night

People often spend half the night guarding their livestock to prevent theft. Another additional problem is because of the drought elephants are coming out of the national parks to graze around our homes and they are destroying the little property we have. Even yesterday a person was almost trampled at their doorsteps as they were just coming out and they met an elephant at the door. One of the other problems that makes the drought worse is that one of the rivers that was once used for irrigation and water has been obstructed upstream and for the last 6 years the flow hasn’t been constant, which has made our situation much worse. 

Finally I would like to request to ActionAid whether they can buy for us some livestock, so that we can begin again our livestock keeping lifestyle after this drought...