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

Figure 1: Map of Turkana the study area and its location within Kenya.
Source: (Hoffman and Oliver-Smith 2002: 218).
The Turkana District is a sprawling arid land and has long been
considered a difficult place to survive. From the earliest oral and recorded
history 10, it is evident the people of the District have experienced cycles of
droughts and consequent famines resulting in acute shortages of food and
water for both humans and livestock (Ellis, Gavin, McCabe, and Swift
1987; Gulliver 1955; McCabe 1990; Republic of Kenya 2002; UNICEF
2006). The early European observers were appalled by the arid conditions.
From the earliest days of British colonial administration, Turkana was
considered “a district of burning desert of sand and stones with hardly a
10 See chapter 5 for a chronology of drought and famine occurrences in the Turkana
District.
11
Morulem
village
Turkana
district