The forsaken People

 

Kenya has communities with different economic activities spread across the country. The central region, Western and Nyanza regions, and a part of the Rift Valley regions rely on subsistence or large-scale crop farming, whereas all other regions, particularly the northern, parts of Rift Valley and upper Eastern, rely on livestock keeping. Though there is change of rain pattern across the country due to climate change, the impact is much severe on the livestock keepers’ regions, with people losing animals to the pangs of drought and disease, and the pangs have now turned to the people, with a lack of food and water claiming human lives.

Other than the effects of nature, successive governments have purposefully disregarded regional needs. The region was merely regarded as a buffer zone between Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia during colonial times up until 1980. Because of this, the populace they have had very little concept of democracy or service delivery; all they know is that men in boats with guns are the government; their word is the word of government as compared to the words of colonial representatives; you cannot question their words and they called the people "haramia”. Bullets blatantly killed animals while maiming or killing people. Government policies turned a blind eye to the region after independence. By dividing the nation into economic and non-economic areas, Sessional Paper 10 of 1965 specifically ignored the region, article 133, states that "to make the economy as a whole grow as fast as possible development money should be invested where it would yield the largest increase in output" expressly ignored the region.

Given the government did not want to exploit livestock production or did not have the capacity to identify natural resources such as oil or wind for exploitation the policy particularly article 133 denied the region basic infrastructures and facilities including roads, hospitals, water and sanitation, education and lack of these has made the region loose children, women to illness in the name of boosting economic growth with the produce from the said economic regions.

2010 constitution came as a blessing in disguise for the region the government it sent hope to the region through constitutional provisions on equitable representation leading to it got some more seats at national level while not compared with other regions and at least some funds through devolved system. However, the constitutional ray of hope is diminishing by day given the national government has not seen necessary to implement article 204 of the constitution on the equalization that would have helped in reduction of the problems through supplementing the effort of the county government, to direct resources to the region over and above the county allocations.

The article tries to remedy the situation caused by different policies since independent. it requires the government to pay one half per cent of all the revenue collected by the national government each year calculated on the basis of the most recent audited accounts of revenue received. The money deposited is meant to provide basic services including water, roads, health facilities and electricity to marginalized areas to the extent necessary to bring the quality of those services in those areas to the level generally enjoyed by the rest of the nation, so far as possible.

President Uhuru attempted to implement the article through the establishment of a committee with a secretariat during his final year in office, after the budget was approved by Parliament. Nothing has been heard from or about them since their appointment. In addition, he declared a national drought disaster and allocated Ksh.2 billion in aid to the affected areas.

People who were supposed to be lifted up to the level of other Kenyans by Article 204 are now facing death as a result of drought caused by a lack of rainfall over two calendar years, which nailed on an already vulnerable region. Climate change has made livestock farming impossible, and hunger and other related diseases such as malnutrition are robbing them. From 1990 to the present, at least one person has died as a result of hunger or something related to it in every household.

Will President Dr. William Samoi Ruto's government give Article 204 the attention it deserves? We'll have to wait and see. While we wait, keep in mind that he signed an executive order subsidizing fertilizer and that his speech at UNGA 77 was primarily about climate change and agriculture, excluding crop farming and livestock farming. Mr. President, you have the authority to halt all development projects and save the lives of Kenyans living in ASAL regions. At the very least, make them feel important and that Kenya is not complete without them.

Mr. President I recently went to a remote area in Marsabit County known as Watiti for work, but I ran out of energy. I saw malnourished men, women, and children with sickening stories about how a lack of food, water, and healthcare has rendered them all disabled and equalized the young and old. We were able to rally local leaders for some food substance and rescue some for further medication, including twins and their mother, with the help of well-wishers. Mr. President, we lost one of the children to malnutrition while he was receiving medication, and I wondered how many more are dying in the villages without anyone knowledge.

Mr. President Kenya, particularly the region in question with Ethiopia and Somalia, is home to 70% of people experiencing extreme food insecurity; the current droughts and their consequences may be worse than the 2011 drought, which killed 260,000 people, or the worst since the 1990s; and, as I witnessed with the child we lost, people have already begun to die. Around 4.3 million Kenyans are suffering from the pangs and may become statistics of those who died.

Mr. President The vulnerable members are being targeted by preys with food in the name of aid with the condition that they convert to another religion for support, which is completely against human rights, but remember that beggars do not have a choice; for some of them, it is now conversion from one religion to another or death. I besiege you on their behalf to suspend all operations and save the lives of these communities.

Mr. President, there is no other country called Kenya, and these Kenyans have no other country or entity that can support them unconditionally except their government; do not turn your back on them.

Ahmed Maalim

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