EL
RAM, Kenya, May 9 (Reuters) - It is tempting to
romanticise the lifestyle of nomads in Kenya's
northeast -- a land peppered with vast termite
mounds which burst from rust-coloured soil like
fingers pointing to the cloudless sky.
For centuries, Muslim pastoralist tribes have roamed
the semi-arid wastelands, in perpetual pursuit of
pasture and water, seemingly oblivious to the
borders of Somalia and Ethiopia.
Despite the picture-book image, these tribes,
neglected for generations by the Nairobi government
and colonial administrations, are at the sharp edge
of global conundrums of poverty, environmental
damage and now the food price crisis.
The nomads are among the most vulnerable people in
east Africa's largest economy, where per capita
income is around $580. The government expects growth
of 4-6 percent this year.
In El Ram, an isolated settlement 80 km (50 miles)
from El Wak on the Somali border, the nomads'
survival is inextricably linked to fluctuations in
local and global markets, and political machinations
in the distant capital Nairobi.
They earn a meagre income from selling milk and, on
occasion, livestock. The rise in global food prices
means that, like many other Africans, their
purchasing power is heavily reduced and now they
cannot buy essential supplements.
The semi-nomadic residents of El Ram were also
affected, albeit indirectly, by the violence that
erupted after President Mwai Kibaki's disputed
election in December. More than 1,200 people were
killed and some 300,000 were displaced.
The crisis laid bare tensions over land and tribe.
Fights over water, cattle and pasture have long
plagued the remoter, lawless corners of Kenya where
many pastoralists or cattle rustlers carry machine
guns and other weapons.
For El Ram's residents, many of whom depend on food
aid for survival during the dry season, the
political crisis meant aid dried up as prices in the
market soared.
"Ever since the elections and violence, there have
been no food distributions by NGOs (non governmental
organisations)," said village elder Mohammed Yakub.
After the vote, trucks carrying aid relief and
commercial goods from Mombasa, Kenya's port and a
regional transport node, were temporarily halted for
security reasons.
That caused widespread food and fuel shortages
throughout east Africa -- inevitably prices shot up.
Displacement of farmers in the food-producing region
of western Kenya during the planting season and
forecast poor rains almost guarantee a poor harvest.
Officials fear agricultural output will drop sharply
this year.
Food at the market will remain beyond Yakub's means.
Perched on a rocking chair held together by fraying
grain sacks, he pours milky tea from an ageing flask
as his eight children play around him.
"The price for one kilogramme of posho (maize flour)
is now 90 shillings ($1.45). It used to be 50 --
people are starving," he said.
GLOBAL PREDICAMENT
Poor families worldwide spend 80 percent of their
income on food, according to the World Bank, and are
particularly vulnerable to the sharp rises in global
food prices.
Visiting Kenya in April, U.N. World Food Programme
head Josette Sheeran blamed soaring global food
prices on the "perfect storm" of lower agricultural
production, weather shocks, more meat consumption in
Asia, shifts to biofuel crops and the hoarding of
food stocks.
In Kenya, annual inflation rose to 26.6 percent in
April from 21.8 percent in March because of food
prices.
Sharp price hikes for essential food and fuel have
triggered riots and protests in African countries
from Somalia in the east, through Cameroon to
Senegal on the western Atlantic coast.
In El Ram, price rises have made lives already lived
on the edge even more precarious.
James Odour, drought management coordinator at the
Arid Lands Resource Centre in Nairobi, says
pastoralists are having to sell more livestock to
buy ever smaller amounts of food.
"The life of the pastoralist is now in a dilemma,"
said Abdul Sheikh, field coordinator for the
Consortium of Cooperative Partners (COCOP), which
distributes United Nations aid in northern Kenya.
Sheikh said many pastoralists decided to settle
after the long drought of 2005, gathering together
in settlements where they remained during the dry
season.
But this trend has caused environmental problems as
well: when nomadic herders settle near a water
source, the nearby pasture is overgrazed. Such
settlements are also often entirely reliant on food
and water aid during the dry seasons.
Some analysts say these strains cast doubt on the
survival of the pastoralists' lifestyle.
"With the increasing number of settlements,
increasing population and the reduction in the
number of animals - these people can't survive as
pastoralists," Sheikh said.
Yakub gestures with his cane towards the open
doorway as a gaunt cow saunters past.
"Since it rained last week, livestock have started
to recover," he said, but added that the condition
of the cattle was still very poor, making them
difficult to sell.
"If we look at the worsening droughts every year, we
think that our livestock and therefore our
livelihood will cease to exist," he said.
The chirp of a Chinese-imitation Casio watch calls
Yakub to prayer. In the dim light of the mud hut, he
kisses the compacted red earth, warmed by his
children's bare feet.
