Devastating Drought Alters Life For Kenya Nomads

When 64-year-old Jimale Irobe was a young man, he guided his herds of cows and camels through knee-high grass. These days the scrubby blades barely reach his ankles even in the rainy season, and there is never enough grass to go around. The cattle cannot feed, and the nomadic families that depend on them for milk and meat cannot survive.(..) Aid agency Oxfam says 23 million people need food aid this year after the drought that swept across eastern Africa and the Horn region. Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia have been particularly hard hit. And a September report by the International Food Policy Research Institute predicted that the worldwide effects of climate change will lead to twenty-five million additional children becoming malnourished by 2050.

Two years on, Katine offers much to celebrate – and much to feel frustrated about

Every time I visit Katine, in north-east Uganda, an image remains in the mind for months afterwards. In May, it was a long queue of girls laughing and chatting as they waited at a dirty water pump for hours to fill their jerrycans. In September, it was the eager face of an 18-year-old boy who proudly showed me his school report and told me how it took him three and a half hours to walk to school – and three and a half hours back. I looked with incredulity at the teachers' praise for his schoolwork. When could he find time to do his homework?