Pastoralists in Marsabit who have lost up to a third of their animals due to ravaging drought witnessed in the country a few months ago today received compensation from UAP Insurance under an insurance program developed in partnership with the Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Cornell University, Equity Bank and the index Insurance Innovation Initiative (14) program at the University of California at Davis.

Some 650 insured herders in northern Kenya’s vast Marsabit District benefited from this innovative programme that promises to change the fate of pastoralists living in the arid and semi-arid areas and who face periodic lose of their herds due to drought. “It’s terrible that we are seeing this level of loss but gratifying that the policies are doing what they are supposed to do, which is to help herders avert disaster when weather conditions dry up pasture lands and animals begin to perish,” said Isaac Magina, Head of Agriculture Insurance, UAP Insurance.

Known as Index Based Livestock Insurance or ILBI, payouts are triggered when satellite images show that grazing lands in the region have deteriorated to the point that herders are expected to be losing greater than 15 percent of their herd. The current readings upon which indemnities are now being paid show that between 18 to 33 percent of livestock have been lost to drought this season.

Read more…. AfricaNews.com (21st Oct 2011)