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

affines, friends, neighbours, and passers-by (including those well-known
or even unknown). 152 It was noted that the Turkana people diversified their
relationships during the 2005-2006 drought and famine. Apart from the
immediate family and clan members, relationships were also formed with
the local schools to ease pressure on the existing food resources. The
literature in Chapter 1 reveals that, in the past, several types of social
relationships used to be exploited for survival in times of economic
hardship. They were kinsmen, affines within the pastoral communities
themselves, reciprocal partnerships, symbiotic relationships with
neighbouring agricultural or pastoral communities, and finally,
relationships with outsiders such as traders, state officials, missionaries,
employers, and the sedentary population. These were the types of
relationships observed during the study period (see Table 13), and formed
the core of analysis.
6.8: Chapter summary.
This chapter has presented the findings of interviews with key informants
and household heads. It has focused on the impact of the 2005-2006
drought and famine and the behavioural patterns which emerged in the
process of adjustment to stem the negative effects of the 2005-2006
drought and famine. It reveals that the Turkana pastoral economy has
become highly vulnerable to droughts and famine. During the 2005-2006
drought periods, the Turkana lost many of their livestock and many people
were rendered destitute. The people saw themselves as caught up in a
crisis.
There is evidence that the 2005-2006 drought and famine led to deaths
from starvation, judging from the high death rates during that period. The
evidence available also indicates that the famished Turkana had applied
various ways of weathering the food crises. Thus, they did not simply wait
152 See discussion in chapter 4.
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