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

disease infection as they became victims of various diseases such as
exophthalmia (acute vitamin A deficiency). A brief assessment conducted
by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) in Turkana indicated that
25 per cent of the population suffered from malnutrition, that a large
number of livestock died, and that a number of people dropped out of
pastoralism and either now depend on food aid or have settled in peri-
urban areas in search of employment (UNICEF 2006).
With specific reference to recurrent drought problems in Africa, Glantz
(1987) in his study proposed that livelihood intervention efforts in Africa
should take drought into account as an expected event, and that for
intervention programs to be viable, they must be designed with the ability
to cope with the stress associated with drought. While supporting this line
of thought, O’Leary (1990) and World Bank (1995) in their findings,
recommended that since drought stress has continuously caused long-
term economic disruption in African arid and semi-arid lands, occupied by
pastoralists, a proper formulation of sustainable livelihood intervention
policy should begin with an understanding, and analysis of local
perceptions of drought, and the indigenous knowledge of drought
mitigation. However, Kenya could be said to be ahead of many African
states in having a National Food Policy drawn as a result of the harsh
lessons learnt from the 1979-1980 drought and famine. But the document
is not the final treatise of Kenya’s food security question. The time when all
Kenyans will have access to adequate food intake is nowhere near.
9