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

5.2.2.2.3 Food security measures in Turkana.
Kenya experienced a severe famine in 1960 and 1965 as a result of
drought, and the Turkana District was identified as the worst affected.
Following this famine, the newly formed independent Kenya
government, 108 with the support from various international development
agencies, was eager to introduce new, supposedly more reliable sources of
livelihood for the Turkana people (Turkana Development Annual Report
1966). The measures were based on the argument that only onefifth of the
district’s population could base their subsistence on livestock, whereas the
remainder should be absorbed into settled activities (Brown 1963; Dames
1964). The establishment of a small-scale fisheries industry at the
Ferguson Gulf on Lake Turkana (as early as 1937, fishing at Lake Turkana
was proposed as the best alternative to famine relief), resettlement on
small-scale irrigation schemes along the Turkwel, Kerio, Ewaso Nyiro, and
Tana rivers, and restocking were considered as the only viable solutions, to
the food insecurity problem in Turkana (Dames 1964; Hogg 1986). For the
purpose of this study, these projects are reviewed below:
Restocking: This was seen by the Kenya government as an alternative to
fishing and small-scale irrigation schemes, where each destitute family
would be given animals to enable them to resume the traditional nomadic
life (Turkana Development Annual Report 1963). Various relief agencies
assisted the government and undertook restocking programmes (Hogg
1980), which, however, failed to increase food security in Turkana. Since
the viability of individual Turkana households depends on managing
multiple species – cattle, goats, sheep, camels and donkeys, restocking
with small stock alone was inadequate. Lacking the other necessary
species, families restocked with smallstock simply consumed or sold their
small-stock when they became hungry. Thus restocked families still
remained vulnerable to food insecurity (Oba 1992).
108 Kenya became independent from the British in 1963.
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