Interviewer(s): I007
Interviewee(s): KI052

I007: For how long have you been in this village?

KI052: It has been long, very long.

I007: When you say long time, what exactly do you mean, I mean tell me exact year if you remember?

KI052: From 2000, so I have been here for 17 years now.

I007: For the position that you have, were you selected by people or?

KI052: Yes, I was selected.

I007: And for how long have you been in that position?

KI052: Since 2005, So it is just 12 years in this position.

I007: we were here in February this year (2017), what changes have you observed from February to October this year?

KI052: I have not seen any changes so far.

I007: When I say about changes it includes environment, weather or even other changes that you have seen?

KI052: oh now I have understood your question, when it comes to weather change yes there are changes, this year we happened to get enough rain and even pasture for cattle was enough

I007: Are rich households increasing or decreasing in your community since you have been here?

KI052: Rich households have decreased because of drought last year that caused some cattle to perish.

I007: Are poor households increasing or decreasing?

KI052: Poor households are increasing due to last year condition.

I007: What is the cause of these changes?

KI052: The cause of all these changes is because of weather, last year there was too much drought.

I007: How did it affect the community?

KI052: It did, some of the households depend on cattle for living, so some households could not manage to take their children to school because of lack of school fees.

I007: How do men, women, children affected by this situation?

KI052: Women were affected more because they depend mostly on milk as their business and to get income for household use and pay for fees. Therefore for some children did not go to school due to lack of money to pay for fees. As for the elderly they depend on milk for food; so due to lack of milk the elderly were forced to eat other kinds of foods that they did not prefer.

I007: How does this situation affect diet and health in general?

KI052: No enough food, even when you sell cattle and buy food for the family the money will not be sufficient to buy food to satisfy their needs.

I007: What is the main cause of lack of food in the household?

KI052: Too much drought, and cattle being stolen

I007: Who steal those cattle?

KI052: We don’t know.

I007: When we look at markets? Are there markets in this area?

KI052: No market in Kambala we have to go to Dakawa or Sokoine to get our needs, and to make it easier one must have transport like motorbike; otherwise you suffer because it is too far from here.

I007: Is it lack of source of energy like charcoal and firewood in the house which make these households to lack food?

KI052: No, if it is the matter of firewood there are plenty of them in the forest.

I007: I Would like to know also about water availability in the community for the people not to get enough food in the house?

KI052: Yes, can be a reason because we use a pump to pump water for household use; therefore if the pump breaks down, that means we don’t get water for our own use and for livestock. They took further action of digging dams/wells which could help them but unfortunately due to too much drought it dried up.

I007: What are the challenges of not having water in the society?

KI052: Breakdown of the pump and taps is the main challenges facing the society.

I007: what do you normally do to overcome hunger?

KI052: People just go look for food elsewhere, even to ask from their neighbours.

I007: What do you do to make sure that in the house there is enough food?

KI052: We do business, buy food, and others cultivate in order to get food.

I007: Do people here sell cattle?

KI052: Men are the one who do that.

I007: What do they do with the money?

KI052: Buy animal drugs, clothes for the family, food, vegetables, and other things that the family is need of.

I007: Do you slaughter animals and What do you do with the meat?

KI052: they usually slaughter on Fridays and take the meat to the market and the money obtained is used for school fees.

I007: Who suffers the most when there is no food at all in the house?

KI052: Children, pregnant and lactating women and elders are the ones who suffer a lot.

I007: Why have you said that children, pregnant, lactating women and elders are the ones that suffer a lot?

KI052: Because they can’t stay for a long time without eating, and for the pregnant woman when she does not eating she collapses; Even the elderly are like kids they can’t stay for a long time without eating food.

I007: What should be done to eradicate this issue?

KI052: People should start practicing agriculture and this will help them overcome this hunger problem.

I007: CHANGE IN ENVIRONMENT AND WEATHER When we were here in February (2017) we heard about weather change in this community, now I would like to know what changes have you observed in this society?

KI052: The changes that I have observed was the drought that happened last year; it was terrible in this place even our cattle did not get pasture, at least for this year it is pleasing.

I007: What are the months for the rainy season?

KI052: During February to April, or even from March to May, but mostly it lasts for three months maximum.

I007: What can you say about 5 years back?

KI052: It was not really pleasing because it was not enough for the crops to grow at least this year we got water up to this October.

I007: How does this weather change affect the community?

KI052: lack of water/rain lead to conflicts,

I007: When there is no enough rain do animals get enough pasture/feeds?

KI052: They are sent to nearby places for pasture.

I007: CHANGE IN LIFESTYLE What do men, women, youth and children do when there is change in lifestyle?

KI052: Most of the time youths go to town to do business, and sell those traditional medicines

I007: When there is too much drought, what can you say about milk and meat availability?

KI052: It becomes hard, because there are times when there is no milk at all

I007: Are there any changes in roles and responsibility due to weather change?

KI052: Men are more responsible during this time, women have very little chance to look for food.

I007: And during rainy season the roles and responsibility of each one?

KI052: Women are more responsible to make sure that every place is clean for not the children to get sick.

I007: Are there conflicts during the rainy season?

KI052: No conflicts during rainy season

I007: Who is responsible to shift the cattle during the dry season?

KI052: Youths (male and female) are responsible, sometimes even women do go with the animals.

I007: For the ones who remain behind what do they eat?

KI052: Normal food like ugali and vegetable, because at that time there is no milk available.

I007: What if one has no something to eat at all what does she/he do?

KI052: They ask from their neighbours.

I007: What do people do apart form livestock keeping activities?

KI052: Business, agriculture and some of them they sell charcoal

I007: For those who do business,what benefit do they get?

KI052: You get benefit because without that you can’t be doing business, so they are able to pay for school fees for their children, build house and buy food. In a business you can’t get benefit throughout sometimes you lose. Those who deal with agriculture they also get benefit or lose it depends with the prevailing situation.

I007: what other impact that has been caused by weather change?

KI052: Eruption of diseases, so far we don’t know why some other diseases erupt in our community, we think it is due to weather change and existence of industries.

I007: Are there any changes that you observed or seen for the children that go to school and come back home.

KI052: Yes, because when they come back they educate us about what to eat and other things so there are positive changes.

I007: What can you say about culture and lifestyle?

KI052: the culture at some point has changed; the youth no longer respect their elders, even the elders themselves nowadays don’t respect each other.

I007: Now let’s talk about conflicts in your community, comparing 2 years back up to date what can you say?

KI052: To some point conflicts have been reduced comparing to some years back.

I007: Conflicts that occur in here are they for the people in the same community or from outside?

KI052: Mostly from outsiders, because they are the ones who move from one place to another to look for pasture so due to that they let their animals in our farms and destroy crops, which lead to conflict between us. It reached a point whereby our leader said that any one who wants to live or just to stay for some time in the village she/he has to report to the chairperson of the village so that she/he can be aware of them. In case anything happens to the community or to them he/she should know what to do.

I007: What about women roles/responsibility in the community?

KI052: Women roles have changed; as we all know that in the Maasai culture, women are not supposed to do anything than to stay at home taking care of the children and elders, cook for the them, and just do other activities at home, but lately everything has changed women do everything now, we go to the market, cook, look after needy ones and milk the cows. So women roles have changed comparing to previous years.

I007: What difficulties do the family face due to women doing other activity?

KI052: They face a lot of difficulties especially children and elders, because they are used to a situation whereby every time there is someone at the house to look after them.

I007: Family income?

KI052: It depends with what the woman get.

I007: We know that there is movement of people from one village to another village, what changes have you seen so far?

KI052: There are those who come to our village and cause conflicts but others go for good without coming back and others they do come back to their origin.

I007: For those who shift to other places, who exactly shifts?

KI052: Youth, (male & female) and go to town to look for what to do or for a job, but sometimes youths come back

I007: who are the ones that remain behind?

KI052: Elders, children and women are the ones who remain behind.

I007: For those who go for education/schooling do they come back home after their studies?

KI052: Yes, they do come back.

I007: When they come back are their behaviours the same as before?

KI052: Yes, because they don’t have anything to do like permanent job so they go back to their traditional activity of taking animals for grazing. However, this happens for only those who did not reach university level.

I007: What challenges do the families or households face when youths are at home or they have shifted with the cattle?

KI052: It is challenging because we know youths are capable of a lot of things, as going to fetch water, look after the elderly and children when no one else is there, so when they are not around a mother has to do all that.

I007: So, for the ones that have gone to school do you see positive or negative change in them?

KI052: We see positive changes, because even when we have difficulties in solving some community issues they are there to help with all that they have.

I007: For the ones who shift to your village, what impact do they bring?

KI052: They bring positive change to the society, and other things are available as usual, we eat the same kinds of foods because we get at the same market.

I007: What do people say about all these changes?

KI052: They just have to accept the situation because you can’t force a person to stay, but the main issue is that of reduction of herd size of cattle so as to be able to take care of them than before.

I007: How do those changes affect people’s diet?

KI052: It does not affect anything; some people still eat the same foods,

I007: Awareness of people on how to prepare food, are people in this community really aware on how to prepare food?

KI052: Previously men used to eat special food and even when they have travelled the food should be prepared and preserved until when he comes back. Nowadays everything has changed so people do not follow all the traditional things like before, so you may find men eat elsewhere apart from home when they travel.

I007: Are there conflicts in your village?

KI052: Yes they are there; especially pastoralist and farmers, and sometimes the situation gets critical and certain procedures have to be followed in order to solve this conflict.

I007: Which conflict is common in here? And how frequent does it happen?

KI052: Pastoralist and farmers, mostly during the dry season is when all this conflict happens.

I007: What is main reason of this conflict?

KI052: Can be farmers but also when we look deep, all this started happening after Sadick (member of parliament) lost in elections.This is when all this conflict started without politics things could be very normal and peaceful in our village.

I007: Can this conflict affect animals feeds?

KI052: To some extent we can say Yes; that is because everyone is being protective with the place so animal feeds are scarce.

I007: What do you do normally when conflicts happen?

KI052: We sit together and talk peacefully when it gets worse is when we ask for help from outsiders.

I007: Where do people normally learn about diet?

KI052: There is no specific place apart from some NGOs that visit our village and teach us about healthy living.

I007: Is the diet knowledge important to you?

KI052: We like this because it teaches us on how to prepare food for our family, and what food is more important than the other.

I007: Where exactly do you want to learn this knowledge?

KI052: There should be people specific for this, visiting our village frequently and educate us about diet.

I007: What about schools, church or hospitals?

KI052: For that is okay schools, church and hospitals but for radios not all people own radios even television so we suggest church and schools are more relevant for such people. Thank you so much for your time and leaving everything behind to come and share with me your knowledge about the village, but I would like to give you this opportunity to say something.

We are happy but if we can get this education more often we would be grateful.