As the Somali-Kenyan locals say, drought first takes the animals, then the people. As we turned off the nine kilometers of paved highway which connect Garissa to the North Eastern Province (NEP), we are first greeted by the carcasses of two dead goats. Later, we see dead donkeys and cows. Drought is here. 

By Robert Waweru TURKANA, Kenya (Reuters) – Villagers in northwest Kenya squat in the sparse shade of an acacia tree and watch as aid workers slaughter their prized goats before distributing the meat to hungry people waiting for relief food. Goats are the economic lifeblood of the minority Turkana tribe, who live around Kenya’s second biggest lake and whose homeland is being ravaged by drought for a fifth year running. Their misery is part of a broader disaster that aid agencies say is driving more than 23 million people in seven east African nations toward severe hunger and destitution. Most nomadic ethnic groups in Kenya hold on to their animals and refuse to slaughter them even in times of severe drought, viewing them as their most valuable investment. Goat carcasses litter the area, among skeletons of long-dead cattle. In desperation, Turkana villagers are now selling their precious animals to the European Union’s humanitarian wing, ECHO, for prices well below their usual market price. “The program buys animals from the community, slaughters them here and distributes the meat as relief food,” ECHO official Martin Karimi told Reuters. “They can’t sell at market value because the market has collapsed. The animals are very weak and no one is willing to buy.” … “It is so painful to see my goats dying … I have lost count of how many I’ve lost,” said local woman Esther Ekuwon as she waited with other women, some clutching hungry, crying babies, others holding onto emaciated goats ready for the knife. …

Goats killed for food aid in drought-hit Kenya