Caritas Australia funded East Africa Drought Appeal Project Diocese of Marsabit 2011-2012 Marsabit is a pastoral and agro pastoral zone located in upper Eastern Kenya bordering Isiolo to the South East and Wajir to the East. It is one of Kenya's Arid counties located in Eastern Province. The County has a population of 291,166. The main livelihood activities in Marsabit are Pastoral and agro-pastoral which account for 70% and 20% respectively. Livestock and livestock products are a predominant source of food and income to households. Most parts of the County other than Marsabit town chronically experience water scarcity and food insecurity due to frequent drought, recurrent livestock disease outbreaks, poor market and road infrastructure, insecurity from cross boarder raiding and resource based conflicts.  

Failure of the short rains in October 2010 and continuing La Nina induced drought has resulted in further exacerbating the situation in Marsabit. Low and erratic short rains in October last year have lead to less than 20% recharge of temporal water sources, decline in forage, breakdown of water facilities due to overuse by people and livestock. Mass death of livestock, mostly small stocks began in February, but the average daily loss of animals has risen in the last four months as crucial water sources dried up. More than 17,000 animals since January, according to officials from the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) and the governments Arid Lands and Resource Management project (ALRMP). Many of the remaining water sources are contaminated, leading to increased incidents of water-borne diseases such as typhoid, amoeba and diarrhoea.

In Marsabit, due to drought both water and grazing for animals vanished and cattle prices reduced drastically. As a result, there was deterioration of nutrition status particularly children requiring supplementation of protein rich food sources. The problem has been exacerbated by a worldwide rise in food prices. The price of grain in affected areas in Kenya generally is 30-80% above average. 

In many parts of Marsabit, up to 75 percent of their herds have already died while the remainder is either sick or dangerously underweight. The price of animals has plummeted by half while the cost of cereals has soared.Malnutrition rates stands at mean of 27 %. There is reported significant number of deaths, mainly of children, pregnant women and elderly people attributed to hunger, dehydration and water waterborne diseases. 

An increase in staple food prices, particularly in far-flung areas, has worsened, according to ALRMP: 2kg of  maize in  Hurri hills, Marsabit town  has increased from 50 shillings to 150 Kshs  (1.9 USD) and milk has risen from 40 shillings (50 cents) per liter to 80 shillings (1 USD) per liter  ( January and end may respectively). 

School attendance has greatly been affected with some schools down due to lack of  water , others experiencing low attendance while others having 2 to 3 times the number of students   as pastoralists move with their families  in search of pasture.


According to the IPC classification, many large areas of Northern Kenya such as Marsabit has now been classified as “emergency” as of June 2011. Estimates issued by the Kenya Government and the United Nations (UN) shows over 3.5 million people are affected and in dire need of humanitarian assistance in Kenya. 
The situation is changing rapidly and is now estimated that over 4 million people will be classified as “humanitarian crisis” as early as August 2011 in Kenya alone. The next rainy season is not expected before October and December 2011 and there are already indications that poor pastoral communities in large areas of Northern Kenya are already experiencing severe food stress characterised by massive crop failure, high mortality of cattle and a steep deterioration of the livelihoods assets. In the words of many commentators, this drought is being described as the worst drought to hit East Africa in 60 years. 
The encroaching drought has resulted in reduced production of livestock products for household consumption, increased pressure on pasture, death of livestock and insecurity as pastoralists continue to move in search of pasture and others immigrate from the neighbouring Wajir, Isiolo, Samburu counties and others move to the neighbouring Ethiopia.  Resource based conflict is increasing due to competition for limited water and pasture resources.
On June 1st the Government of Kenya (GoK) declared the drought a national disaster and appealed international assistance to provide support to over 3 million Kenyans affected by the drought and acute food shortages Northern, East, Coast and parts Rift valley provinces.  CAFOD through its traditional Catholic Church partners is planning to respond to the needs of the worst affected communities in 4 most affected districts of Maralal, Marsabit, Isiolo and Kitui. The assistance is meant to ensure that the livelihoods of these communities are protected and that these communities do not suffer.

Based on the findings the Diocese together with the Arid Lands and local governments have prioritized the following projects to be supported by CAFOD:

1.  Improvement of acces to safe water . This is aimed at providing Immediate relief to thirsty and hungry residents .The interventions comprise - Rehabilitation and equiping of 2 boreholes in hurii hills and Bubisa . This will involve de-silting water pans using cash transfer to households in preparation for the next rains. In addition some funds will go towards equiping and repairing boreholes in specific areas and training water management committees for sustainability.

2.  Drought stricken but potentially productive households gain access to modest cash incomes through cash for work activities/project and whose long term purpose will be to improve their resilience to future drought shocks e.g. de-silting and construction of earth dams / water pans . 

3.  Non conditonal cash grants for the most vulnerable families (elderly, disabled , HIV and AIDS affected, orphans, child head-homes) . Each vulnerable household will recieve 150 Kshs per day for a month for six months . The methods of cash transfer will be decided . Option include the use of  Mobile money transfer , mobile banking or direct transfer .

4.Additionaly the Health and hygiene promotion sessions will be provided for 600 households in the Diocese of Marsabit.This is aimed at improving the hygine quality whic suffers immensly as a  result of lack of water clean water,massive livestock deaths and low priority as search of food take priority.

5.Construction of 4 water pans in the diocese for the remaining livestocks.This will reduce the tension on the existing and/or constructed waterholes and also reduce the incidence of large movements of livestock and people in search of water.Alongside this,the diocese wil construct 8 pit latrines in the water pan zones as a means of promoting hygine.
                                             
CAFOD will also provide a grant to the Diocese of Marsabit to enable them to hire additonal staff to provide quality and effective support to the partner to enable the project to be implemnted and monitired effectively.