Catherine Ekombe - Radio Atanayeche
Residents in Turkana County have been facing the problem of food shortage for a long time and have been relying on aid food for a long time while many believe that the Turkana area cannot produce food because it is dry. It seems that the residents of Turkana especially in Kakuma are tired of the relief food that is given from time to time and they have prepared themselves to face the crisis of lack of food by taking the matter into their own hands.
Farming is the gospel being preached and absorbed by the residents of Kang’ura village, an estimation of 30km from Kakuma town in Turkana West, the main goal being to completely eradicate the problem of food shortage. A group of women called Kang’ura Farmers Women Group is practicing Greenhouse farming with the help of all the farming materials they have set to cultivate different crops. This group of thirty women has existed for 21 years since it was founded in 2001, with Josephine Lomodei being the chairperson of this group. “We grow all kinds of food, some we eat, sell and also help our friends who can’t afford a meal in a day. The money we get from selling some of our products, we give people loans, and the cycle goes on.”
Just a few kilometres from Kang’ura, in another village of Nayanae Eskriati, the second group is also practicing farming, unlike the first group this is a mix of women and men. The Nayanae Eskiriat group is cultivating different crops and plants including grass for their livestock. The nayanae eskiriat group has 20 people under the leadership of the chairman James Ebeyi Ng’oroto who says that the lack of rain in the area has not stopped them from farming and that they have had to plant crops and plants that do not last long in the field.
A group of women called Kang'ura Farmers Women Group is practicing Greenhouse farming with the help of all the farming materials they have set to cultivate different crops.
The Kakuma refugee camp hosts refugees from various countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, Somalia, and so on. The refugees in this camp have also not been left behind in the farming activity, since they do their farming in the camp either in groups or individually. Togres Sadrine is a refugee from Burundi who arrived in the Kakuma refugee camp in 2010 and has been farming in Tangia since 2015 says, the situation in Turkana forces everyone to be a farmer since they feed their families and run other activities. “We have grown every type of vegetable in this camp and sometimes it is healthy and convenient for us because we get everything fresh from the farm compared to buying them elsewhere.”
The non-governmental organization, world vision has held hands with these farmers to ensure that they cultivate and give them training on how to develop farming themselves. Farming can be done in Turkana county and even the residents produce their food instead of always relying on relief food but that will only happen if the county government in partnership with the national government and social organizations holds the hands of farmers like those who came forward to help them get water to sprinkle their farms as well as inputs Cooperation can help the residents of the county to have their own food.
