FAMINE HITS SAMBURU DISTRICT

A severe widespread famine has emerged in the Samburu District, a result of a brutal Kenya police attack in February, in which police confiscated over 5000 head of cattle across the district, leaving residents without food during the region’s most recent drought. The drought in East Africa is thought to be one of the worst droughts in recent history, impacting 7 countries and over 17 million people, including communities and people across the Samburu District. While this region has always been impacted by drought events, some experts believe that climate change has increased their frequency, severity, and duration. In addition, people who were once nomadic and moved with rains, such as the Samburu, are now forced to live on group ranches without alternatives for surviving these extreme conditions. In addition to looss of life, this policy puts more pressure on the landscape, resulting in environmental degradation, worsening the impact of drought. KARE works to support traditional indigenous practices that once allowed communities to live more sustainably within their ecosystems. Our volunteers are responding to this crisis by providing food, water, medical supplies and other emergency services to those in the most remote locations of northern Kenya, where relief supplies are not available. We are providing emergency humanitarian aid, intermediate interventions, and long-term sustainable solutions that are ecologically sustainable and sound.