Nestled deep in a rural landscape, a village in Isiolo lies surrounded by sprawling fields and winding dirt paths.
Four-wheeled vehicles struggle to meander their way into the dusty village, with smoke curling from a few makeshift kitchens.
Amidst this daunting scene, a group of women is busy stripping camel meat to make a decent living.
The villagers, bound by centuries-old traditions, live a life governed by routines shaped by the sun’s rise and fall.
Stripping the camel meat, however, is not a routine but a new way to survive.
“We are happy here in our village but the only issue is that our children have been suffering from malnutrition for the longest time,“ businesswoman Fatima Fata says as she walks around her compound.
“Look at our children. Some of them are so weak that it’s hard to even walk. They play with empty stomachs.”
Sweeping her otherwise busy compound, Fatima narrates how the sight of her children and that of other children made her shift gears.
She started selling dried camel meat, also known as nyinyir, in light of the hard economic hardship and malnutrition after she was enlightened.
“A non-profit organisation came to this part of the country to train us on how to survive and obtain food,” she says.
According to the KDHS 2023 report, stunting is higher among children in rural areas (20 per cent) than children in urban areas (12 per cent).
The survey indicates that there are wide variations in stunting across counties, with the highest percentages in Kilifi, West Pokot and Samburu (37 per cent, 34 per cent, and 31 per cent, respectively).
A project by USAid titled Nawiri project came in handy as it trained a group of women on how to enhance social capital at the household level, community engagement in savings and micro-finance programmes and business value growth.
“It gave us ideas to look around on what we wanted to do with our lives. Right now, I am really comfortable and happy that my children have started getting strength from the food they are consuming,” she says.
The USAid Nawiri programme is a five-year flagship initiative funded by the USAID Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance with the overarching goal of sustainably reducing levels of persistent acute malnutrition in Kenya’s arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs).
CAMEL MEAT
Fatima says for one to have the best nyirnyir, they have to go for a steak.
“We take the fleshy part of a camel and cut it into strips, then we hang them on ropes. The meat is acquired from slaughterhouses in Isiolo, where they are dried and packaged before selling,” she says.
But she notes that not all parts of the camel are used to make the nyirnyir.
“That is why we do not slaughter the camels on our own. At the slaughterhouse, we only take the steak; the rest is sold to the locals,” she says.
They have to keep checking on the meat that is being dried on the ropes because other stray animals can come and feed on the meat.
The strips are cut in small bits and left in the sun to dry to remove the moisture, and later cut into small pieces that are fried.
“This is usually done in a lot of oil with garlic, salt and cardamom until they are dry. The dry-fried meat is then immersed in camel ghee, where the fatty mixture condenses,” she says, adding that the meat will get spoiled if it is not immersed.
“You must get a beautiful smell out of it for you to know that the meat is ready. We then remove the meat and store it accordingly.”
After the meat is immersed in the ghee, it can be stored for two to three months.
“We put the meat in jerricans, depending on the demand from the consumers. We can store them in 40kg or even 5kg jerricans, depending on what you have requested,” she says.
The 5kg goes for around Sh10,000. According to a 2021 USAid report, over the last 10 years (2010-20), Isiolo county has experienced persistent acute malnutrition among children under the age of five.
The county showed a variation with the most critical years being 2011, 2017 and 2020.
Fatima says selling the meat and also using it to feed her family has seen a reduction in cases of malnutrition.
“This meat helps to regulate high blood pressure. It is good for children who are weak; it literally ensures that there is no malnutrition,” she says.
Moreover, it is good for men who do not perform well in bed, she says.
“This meat strengthens men and gives them the stamina to have better sex with their partners. They have to take it regularly to boost their energy sufficiently.”
Fatima works with 28 women in the nyirnyir business, and they have each opened their shops, where they are selling the camel meat.
Women in the Nawiri project have also been empowered with skills to add value to food and engage in agricultural activities.
FISH BUSINESS
Businesswoman Amina Guyo, who hails from Cherab ward in Isiolo, says she started her fish business as a way of earning a living.
“In our village we did not know about fish, where to get them or even how to prepare the fish. In fact, when we could hear people talk about how they were enjoying fish during conferences, we wondered what and how we could tap into that knowledge,” she says.
Guyo says in order to eat a balanced diet, their group of 20 got trained and well-equipped.
“We started getting knowledge on how to fish, what to do with the fish before consumption and how to preserve it,” she says.
It is from that point that she and a group of women decided to go to the River Ewaso Nyiro, where they started fishing.
“We learnt that we had a big resource, so we were taught about value addition. Initially we used to just boil the fish and eat it the way it is,” she says.
“We get the fish from the river. We then fry the fish to remove the smell. We add tomatoes, spices and right now, I know about fish balls, fish stew, fish fingers and about adding spices to the meal.“
She says they have formed a cooperative to allow them to have a bigger market.
“We formed an umbrella body and now we are selling the fish to different markets in Nyandarua, Karatina, Murang’a and Nairobi areas,” she says.
Guyo says they also sell the fish to the community to prevent malnutrition, adding that the numbers used to be high but now they have only recorded like 20 cases.
“We sell the fish per kilo at Sh350. For one piece, it goes for Sh100, depending on the quantity that a customer needs,” she says.
Like Fatima, Guyo says the fish not only aids in nutrition but is believed to play a bigger role in men’s sexual reproductive health system.
“We do not take them to the hospital when they complain that they can’t perform well. We give them the fish stew,” Guyo says.
“We cook the fish, add dhania, pepper, fish bones and tomatoes and fish head. After one month, they will be strong again to perform,” she says.
She says they sell the fish stew at Sh30 and that the man must take seven cups in one month.
“After one month, the man will perform quite well. And we are happy and proud of all these,” she says.
Guyo wants the county and the NGOs to give them more equipment, such as a freezer, since Isiolo is quite far.
According to Harvard University’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, couples who ate fish twice or more a week had sex 22 per cent more frequently than those who did not.
The research also found that eating more fish helped the couples (who were all trying to conceive) get pregnant easier: 92 per cent of couples who ate fish twice a week or more became pregnant, compared with 79 per cent of the couples who ate fish less often.
KITCHEN FARMING
Lucia Ekwam ventured into agriculture, which she started with a group of women.
“We were taught nine times on how to start a business, how to get money to earn a living,” the trader says.
“Previously without the Nawiri Project training, we used to go herding then come back home and just relax.”
As she speaks, children run barefoot, their wide smiles hiding hollow cheeks and dull eyes.
Many are visibly underweight, their growth stunted by chronic malnutrition.
“As a mother of four children, I was unaware of the importance of proper nourishment, feeding them what is available, foods that fill stomachs but fail to sustain bodies,” she says.
Ekwam says they used to just cook ugali and eat with milk if there is any.
She never considered having more than one meal a day for her children.
“We did this for a while. We used to take food only in the evening and skip morning and lunch hours. Where would we get the food? We toil and the little we have is what we eat,” she says.
With the training they received in 2021, things began to change.
“Our mindsets changed for the better. We have been trained on matters to do with eating a balanced diet, where to get the balanced diet food and how to survive,” she says.
“We were taught kitchen gardening and farming. After that, we formed two business groups of 60 women. Each group had 30 each.”
With these groups, they were also given Sh7,500 per household to buy food before they were given grants to begin doing business.
“We had to buy food, including fruits. So after you buy the food, you make sure it’s a balanced diet. This money we were being given per month,” she says.
For the business grant, Ekwam and her team decided to grow food items, including sweet potatoes, lentils and onions.
“We then keep records of what we have gotten from the farm, the progress, the profit and the losses. We decided to open a shop within the centre. We sometimes buy food and bring it to the shopping centre. Or we go to the farm and sell our products,” she says.
The women are not only economically empowered but also the nutrition for their families has gotten better.
Northeastern ASALs county director Mohamed Boru said counties and NGOs are collaborating to address critical challenges facing the community.
The focus is on equipping residents with essential skills to improve their livelihoods.
“Nutrition is the biggest problem, and one of the primary causes is the lack of access to clean water,” Boru said.
“By providing clean water, we can significantly enhance nutrition at the household level.”
USAID deputy mission director Sheila Roquitte underscored the importance of the partnership between the United States and Kenya in addressing these issues.
She said the collaboration is evident in the successful implementation of various projects across the county.
“This collaboration is vital to us because of the way we work together,” Roquitte said.
“We co-create, co-manage and co-implement these projects.”
The initiatives are driven by the needs and challenges expressed by the community itself.
“The national and county governments play a crucial role in removing obstacles, while our implementing partners leverage best practices from around the world to address local challenges in Samburu,” Roquitte said.
“We partner with Kenyans because we share common values: ensuring everyone has access to healthy food, opportunities for their children, proper sanitation and more.
“The partnership exemplifies a
shared commitment to sustainable
solutions, blending global expertise with local knowledge to create
meaningful and lasting change in
the region.”
