Pastoralist families in Kenya’s Kajiado County are counting devastating losses as a worsening drought wipes out grazing land and leaves animal carcasses scattered across homesteads.
For twenty four year old Maasai herder Maria Katanga, the crisis has been relentless. Since August, she says she has lost more than one hundred cattle and three hundred goats. The animals were not just livestock. They were savings, food, status, and security. As the drought deepened, even selling became an act of desperation. Cows that once fetched up to seventy thousand shillings now go for as little as five thousand, her stepson explained. What remains has little value, and what has value is disappearing fast.
Local officials warn that the situation is pushing herders beyond county and national boundaries. Some families are crossing into Tanzania in search of pasture, a move authorities describe as a sign of extreme distress. According to officials on the ground, the current drought is the worst the region has faced in recent years.
Kenya’s drought authority has cautioned that repeated dry spells are doing more than killing livestock. They are intensifying competition over scarce water and grazing resources, increasing the risk of conflict between communities already under strain. When land dries up, long standing arrangements break down, and survival becomes the only logic.
Kajiado’s crisis is part of a wider regional emergency. Across the Horn of Africa, climate shocks have become more frequent and more severe. Last year, Somalia was forced to declare a national emergency following the effects of the drought, which ruined lives and rendered many homeless. Weather forecasts indicate that the region will receive reduced rainfall in the upcoming weeks.
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With pasture lost, animals dying out, many families are now left to make do with little assistance and a lot of prayer. For those communities whose lives are defined around their cattle, this is not simply an economic tragedy; it is a human existence. Ever death is a testament to a way of life under threat, to a climate that, unchecked, slowly consumes your ability to withstand its force until nothing remains to be sold, nothing remains to be moved, and nowhere remains to go.
