Aerial view of the Turkana people, nomadic herders in Kenya, near a dried-up watering hole. They were suffering amid a five-year drought in March 2023. Photo: FRANCE 24
Aerial view of the Turkana people, nomadic herders in Kenya, near a dried-up watering hole. They were suffering amid a five-year drought in March 2023. Photo: FRANCE 24

By Achraf Abid and James André
20 October 2023

(FRANCE 24) – FRANCE 24 brings you the stories of the people who are on the frontlines of climate change. From Kenya to Panama, via Greenland and Australia, our reporters James André and Achraf Abid went to meet the Indigenous people who live in harmony with nature and whose daily lives are being turned upside down by global warming. Don’t miss our series of four special reports. In this first episode, we take you to Kenya.

It’s March 2023 in Kenya and the Turkana people are still waiting for rain. They’ve been waiting for five long years. These nomadic herders live in the arid northwest of the East African country. For centuries, their lives have been determined by the alternating dry and rainy seasons. But now the water has stopped coming, leaving the land parched.

The lack of pasture has decimated the Turkana’s livestock, causing famine and death. For those who have lost everything, there is only one solution: to turn to fishing in the immense salt lake that borders their land. Our team reports.

Indigenous people and climate change: With Kenya’s Turkana people, when drought kills (1/4)