Rising Lake Turkana swallows roads, schools in Marsabit

A drive to Loiyangalani, Marsabit county, paints a picture of a forgotten people.

Driving for six hours on an extremely difficult terrain on cruisers off the A2 Isiolo-Moyale Road slaps you with the harsh realities of what decades of marginalisation can do to a people. There were no schools, hospitals or dispensaries, permanent structures and other basic public amenities in sight. 

Harsh terrain is an understatement given that in some sections, roads are non-existent, cut off by floods. In others, waters from other areas have made them impassable. But still, the drives offer beautiful views of the northern part of Kenya, a huge potential for tourism.

This was a visit to the communities of Loiyangalani by a group of NGOs that support them, seeking to see and hear first-hand the challenges they face and the solutions they have.

The organisations included Mt Kenya Network/deCOAL, Namati, Hivos, Samburu Women Trust, the Green Belt Movement and Defenders Coalition.

Others were Indigenous Women Council, DiploBrief and the American Jewish World Service. They were hosted by a local group, Wong’an Women’s Initiative.

The small town on the southeastern coast of Lake Turkana means "a place of many trees" in Samburu, but even with the natural springs, the reality is different.

Among the people found here are the Samburu, the Rendille, the Turkana and the El-Molo, who are among the indigenous and marginalised communities in Kenya. The town is recently popularly known for the Lake Turkana Cultural Festival.

FROM FLOODS TO DROUGHT

Being a vulnerable area due to harsh climatic conditions, Loiyangalani is dealing with various climate change-related problems, including loss and damage.

Fr Mark Gitonga of Loiyangalani Catholic Parish says in his more than a decade mission, he has witnessed cattle perish, a dear livelihood in the area.

“The last drought was the worst and it is really saddening seeing these people watching and mourning as their cattle die and there is nothing you can do for them,” he said.

"I have a case of an old man who had 100 camels and about 1,000 goats and they all perished. A wealthy man turned into a beggar."

The implication is the old man cannot now afford to educate his bright daughter, who Fr Gitonga believes is smart enough to be a doctor in future. Dreams were shattered.

Then there are problems brought about by the rising waters of Lake Turkana.

Delineation of the water area of the lake in 2020 showed it increased in area by 779.59 km², flooding all the low-lying coastal areas and the grasses therein. The increase in area of the lake was about 10.4 per cent, which has had a negative impact on the ecology and the biodiversity.

These water levels have since risen higher, swallowing not only the murram road that serves the community but also submerging homes, a school, a fish freezer and the local Catholic church. Graves and sacred sites, too, were not left out.

When their main road was submerged by the lake, for the fourth time, it is the community that fundraised with their meagre resources and dug a new one using hand tools. This is even as the promise for better roads remain just that: pledges, in part contributed by selfish political interests by some leaders, who have won’t agree on the route.

El Molo Primary School's toilets and kitchen have been totally submerged, with the boarding facility for girls becoming uninhabitable. A modern kitchen has been built through LTWP and the toilets have been moved, but the new ones are inadequate.

This phenomenon is taking away even the little facilities the community has, further worsening the education situation in the area.

The area has only four other primary schools and two secondary schools with very few teachers. Titus Nguyen Primary School with 269 pupils (128 boys and 141 girls) has only six teachers, while the JSS has 112 pupils with only three teachers. On the other hand, Elmosaretu Girls Secondary has 42 students with three teachers among them. 

Santu Primary has 656 pupils sharing seven teachers, and its JSS has 98  students and two tutors. El Molo Bay Primary has 175 pupils and four teachers, with the JSS accommodating 37 under two teachers.

Some of the El Molo at Komote village on the El Molo Bay have been marooned, separating them from the rest of the community. They are left to live in extremely difficult circumstances, with non-existent social amenities.

Schoolchildren have to navigate crocodile-infested waters to and from school every day using a boat but without life jackets. They are also forced to use and drink the alkaline water, which has visible effects on their hair, teeth and bones. Residents also complain of respiratory tract infections.

The situation is worsened by the inadequacy of health services in the area and increased poverty levels as livelihoods have been destroyed.

With only two boats on site, one operating as a “schools bus”, transport challenges mean the sick and women in labour can’t access the dispensary easily and on time, says Lucy Ngasepisho, who lives on the island.

For parents, they have to contribute for the boat fuel, a cost they did not incur years back.

MARGINALISED FOR AGES

The history of marginalisation of northern Kenya dates back to the colonial period, with development largely concentrated along the railway and the fertile White Highlands, while the vast northern and northeastern, with harsh climatic conditions, were ignored. This continued in independent Kenya.

Abdirashid Jabane, in his chapter Rural Development and Marginalisation: The Drylands of Northern Kenya, says the state has had a role in this disfranchisement, invariably blaming the underdevelopment of northern Kenya on the scarcity of resources, aridity, remoteness, local resistance and insecurity.

Such attitudes by the government can be traced to the 1965 Sessional Paper No. 10, which shunned Northern Kenya as unproductive arid and semi-arid regions. 

This cast them into economic oblivion, instead of channelling development, resources and investment towards the high potential regions.

With the government centralised until 2010, most of the northern region remained unexploited and undeveloped. It was not until 2008 when the Isiolo-Moyale Road was designed under President Mwai Kibaki and completed in 2017, opening up the northern frontier.

With the onset of devolution, a lot was expected but residents are yet to enjoy the fruits of the devolved system due to limited allocated resources in a region that had been forgotten for decades, vast areas, poor leadership and corruption in county governments.

As a result, huge gaps remain in bridging development in the region, which has been exacerbated by climate change. It is an already vulnerable area due to its arid and semi-arid status.

And even when the government moves in to develop and explore the region, the people don’t feel part of the initiatives.

Take, for example, the controversial Sh80 billion Lake Turkana Wind Power Project, the largest such energy project in Africa.

While it draws huge support from the Kenyan government, the project is unpopular at the local level. The community accuses it of communal land-grabbing, infringement of indigenous and customary land rights as well as corporate negligence.

While the company prides itself in providing “reliable and low-cost energy” to Kenya’s national grid, locals are unhappy as they don’t have access to electricity.

They also complain that while the wind power has contributed to certain benefits, it has brought about other problems that affect the community negatively, leaving them feeling exploited.

In one of the meetings with local communities, a local woman asked, “How fair can it be that these people are taking power from us and I don’t have that power? Instead, I have to make do with a lamp.”

The sentiments are shared by many in these engagements.

They thought President William Ruto had heard their cry when, during the Marsabit Lake Turkana Cultural Festival in November last year, he promised to ensure access to power from the LTWP project by this year.

“We have a lot of wind here that we use to generate power. You have said, and it is true, that this power leaves this place and helps us in Nairobi and other parts of Kenya but the people of Loiyangalani are still in darkness,” the President said.

“I want to assure you that already, we have a plan in place to have the power generated from the wind power supplied to this town. I want to ensure that by the time I come back here next year, you will have electricity from the wind power.”

He added that mini-grids would be built in Marsabit, Moyale and North Horr to ensure access to power. Almost a year later, this pledge is yet to be fulfilled, even as plans get underway for the 2024 Lake Turkana Cultural Festival.

LAND OWNERSHIP WOES

Land ownership and management remains a challenge. The community has been pushing to own their community land and have it registered, a contentious issue that ended up in court.

On May 25, 2023, the residents won a case at the High Court against an attempt by LTWP to have a review of the November 2021 ruling to extend the time to regularise the acquisition of the 150 acres on which the project sits. The court had nullified the title deeds.

The three-judge bench of the Environmental and Land Court noted that the government had not demonstrated willingness to convert the land as required by law, and thus the request for the extension “would not serve any purpose”.

The community leaders believe the delay was deliberate so that they are not compensated for the land.

They had moved to court in 2014 to block the acquisition, arguing that it was their ancestral, cultural and grazing land held “under an intergenerational trust for future generations”, and a key factor in their survival and livelihood.

Human rights defender Gitahi Githuku, who has followed the land issue, says the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent was ignored as the community should have been involved from the onset and made aware of the project.

The principle refers to the right of indigenous peoples to give or withhold their consent for any action that would affect their lands, territories or rights.

In this regard, Githuku said LTWP should not feel it has exhausted the land acquisition process without involving the community.

“Listening to the community, they want justice done. This means correcting the wrongs done and retracing the steps that were missed. Justice means ensuring all administrative and legislative processes are followed,” Gitahi said.

He added that selling renewable energy is good but in a case where locals don’t have access to electricity, this goes against global best practices.

The land registration under communal land tenure is key to the community as it ensures collective ownership, benefit sharing and inclusive development.

They complain that failure to register the land also means they cannot access money paid to the county government, even as they made it clear that they are not anti-development but demanding an equal share and right of the benefits.

They, however, find refuge in the Community Land Act of 2016, which safeguards their land rights.

Defenders Coalition executive director Kamau Ngugi, who was part of the visting team, said the county leadership and national government must be forthright in sharing information and allowing the community to freely share their views on what they need.

"Cherry picking who to speak for the community is affecting true public participation," he said.

"Community land registration must be prioritised so that the community can derive the various benefits applicable to them. Women-headed households must be registered as land stakeholders."

Despite criticism from the community, LTWP says that since inception, it has focused on improving local livelihoods.

"LTWP established Winds of Change (WoC) as an ongoing commitment to local communities," it says on its website.

"WoC undertakes sustainable community development projects across Laisamis Constituency (Marsabit county), where the wind farm is located."

An email seeking clarification on issues raised was not answered.