PhD thesis Title Page Final _Richard Juma - Victoria University ...

Figure 7 Population projections by sex in the Turkana District, 1999-2008.
Population Size
350,000
300,000
250,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
0
1999 2002 2004 2006 2008
Year and sex
Source: Adapted from Republic of Kenya 2002:18.
103
Male
Female
The observation I would make here is that the population in Turkana is
increasing fairly rapidly and is therefore exerting a lot of pressure on the
available scarce facilities and resources such as food, water, pasture,
vegetation, education, employment, and health. This is manifested by the
persistent drought, famine, malnutrition, unemployment, poverty, and the
inability of the district residents to access basic services such as health
and education, as discussed below. Furthermore, high population has led
to increased competition with pastoral neighbours for pasture and water,
leading to violent armed attacks between Turkana and their neighbours
the Pokot pastoralists (Daily Nation 15th May 2007: 13).
4.8 Livelihood platform in the Turkana District.
This section discusses the livelihood platform in the Turkana District as
complement to the livelihood context in that region. The intention is to