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

(Hendrickson, et al. 1998). By and large, these assumptions about the
nature of the African pastoralists and their limited production ability has
led to the production based view that regular food shortages in the
Turkana district are mainly caused by production failure (Republic of
Kenya 2002). However, Cornwall and Scoones (1993) have argued that a
production based view can only promote the policy of estimation of food
requirements and improvement of food supply, but cannot lead to an
appreciation of indigenous strategies for coping with food insecurity.
According to Levile and Crosskey (2006: 8) “what has been lacking for
years is adequate attention to pastoral areas, a proper understanding of
the needs and potential of the pastoral communities, coupled with
inadequate investment”. I assert here that the Turkana people should be
described in terms of their potential capacity to cope with uncertainties,
risks or crises, rather than in terms of what they lack. In Sudan, for
example, an analysis of humanitarian response to the 1984-1985 drought
and famine showed how most people affected by drought and famine
survived not because of aid, but due to their own resourcefulness and
survival skills (De Waal 1989).
As we well know, famine relief food supplies are a stop-gap measure in the
struggle to keep victims alive. I argue further that though external support
is necessary in extreme situations because the livelihoods of Turkana
people are dominated by risk and uncertainty, the Turkana people do not
see themselves as so needy as to have their livelihoods 12 reconstructed. My
respondents claimed that external agencies have time and time again
missed the opportunity to understand their production system, work with
them within their traditional setting, and together chart permanent
solutions to food insecurity problems. External intervention programs
designed to supply famine relief fail to take into account existing realities.
Mbithi and Wisner (1972) argues that a relatively low cost and high benefit
approach in dealing with drought problems in Kenya is to build upon the
12 This information was obtained from both key informants and household heads.
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