Watering camels from a hand - dug well in Turkana. Credit: Anthony Morland/IRIN

The droughts in the Turkana region were less severe when she was growing up, says Laura Letapalel, and pastoralists could still find some grass and water for their animals. Now, she laments, the droughts are longer and there is nothing to eat.

Andrew Mude, an economist with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), says drought is the greatest hazard encountered by herders.

“This is particularly true for northern Kenya, where more than three million pastoralist households are regularly hit by increasingly severe droughts. In the past 100 years, northern Kenya has recorded 28 major droughts, four of which occurred in the last 10 years,” Mude explains.
Read more … (IPS -Nairobi, Feb 4, 2010 )