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

market taxes, destocking campaigns, and quarantine. Initially, vigorous
quarantine regulation was meant to restrict the spread of animal diseases,
but instead, it provided a means to confiscate much of the land with the
highest agricultural potential to settlers (Spencer 1983). Taxation also
made border trade difficult and less profitable. By the 19 th Century, most
Turkana groups had adopted transhumance, a settled form of pastoralism
through which only animals are moved in search of pasture and waters
while the families settle ‘permanently’ in given locations (Ocan 1992).
5.2.2.1.4 Famine amelioration measures.
Food insecurity was a common feature in the Turkana region, even during
the pre-colonial period. The earliest famine documented occurred in 1925
(Swift 1985; Turkana Drought Contingency Unit 1992). As already
discussed, earlier cases of famine were generally as a result of drought,
diseases, and raids from the neighbouring communities. But, during the
colonial period, the drought risks were compounded by the colonial
administration policies in relation to land, as discussed above. The colonial
period was more disruptive in working towards alleviating famine in the
Turkana area. As an early short-term response to food shortages, the
British administration imported maize-meal to be sold to famished
Turkana people at a subsidized price. This took place as early as 1932
(Hogg 1982). During very severe famine conditions, the colonial
government would resort to providing free maize meal to the old people and
the children. Other measures included providing food-for-work, and
sending the most desperate paupers to permanent famine relief camps
which were set at Furguson’s Gulf on Lake Rudolf (now Lake Turkana),
and Lodwar (Turkana Development Annual Report 1948, 1949). By 1937,
the colonial government designed a long-term measure to food problems in
the area by aggressively promoting fishing at Ferguson’s Gulf as the best
alternative to famine relief. In the period 1937 to 1942, about 26 destitute
families on average were maintained at Ferguson’s Gulf on the basis of
156