Imagine challenging a lion physically: Look at this picture of how a lion has damaged the thigh ( deep cut) of this man. Garissa and Wajir districts in Kenya have become a battle zone in the recent past between marauding lions and helpless pastoralist. Early this year , nine family members have been seriously injured in Biyamadow in Wajir. They attained serious injuries ranging from severe skull damage, deep cuts to skin scratches as shown by the above picture which i took in Garissa general hospital. This particular man  who have been at the hospital for a week  told me that they had to fight the rogue lions for almost four hours in broad day light just to rescue one of their goats.  According to the victims, lion’s attacks have been on the increase mainly due to prolonged droughts, trade on lions cubs and perhaps due to reduced water sources. Other similar incidents have been reported in Liboi, Modogashe, Bananey and Damajalley in the two districts.

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Dear friends. I recently had the chance to visit and sensitise youth groups in the famous Dadab and Hagardera refugee camps in Kenya. I was invited by some official of UNHCR and CARE Kenya to talk to the youths in the area on general environmental issues affecting their life. We had a great moment together as we were entertained by traditioanl groups and school children following my talk . Since the collapse of the Somali republic in 1991 the influxes of refugees in these camps have been constant and now most of the the current youth were born in these camps. Ofcourse direct consequence of this is the impact to the environmnt as this people directly depend on the ever diminishing dryland natural resources available causing serious vegetaion destructions. This is manifested in terms of charcoal burning, firewood harvesting and massive green cuttings for shelter materials especially in the refugee camps areas. it was obvious to me that continuous exploitation of deadwood for the immediate needs of the refugees and the host communities without regards to its sustainability will compromise the natural regenerative capacity of the environment, and thus compromising its ability to meet the needs of the future generation. Dead woods are home to several insects and rodents that play an important role in nutritional cycles, and also serve an important food source for birds, thus contributing significantly to the complex food web. As we all know there is increasing global and local recognition of the inter-dependence between environment and development and often environmental destruction is directly proportional to the level of povety. I therefore urge development agents in the area to sandwitch environmtal programes with other development issues.

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Communities sorounding the sanctuary are mainly pastoral somali communities who are traditinally nomads and moves around with ther livestock in serach pasture and water. To facilitate this, the community have traditional houses made of grasses and other plant materials popularly known as herio. The house is normally circular in shape as you can see in the picture above. I am the guy infront of the house and this is where i slept for that night. Women are the main architechs of this houses,while the men look after the livestock. The housing materials have cooling effects and the outsides teperature are drastically reduced making life possible in the desert.

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Friends, this blog post is a collection of photos to give you more insight into our lives and environment.

This dry country is our home. We are pastoralists - we depend on our goats and camels for almost everything.  We do not have piped water - it is fetched from the river in jerry cans and is carried to our houses. We are also doing some farming especially near the river.

Gerenuk are amongst the most beautiful of African antelopes - few people eat them, they are believed to cause sterility in men!

Do you know what these giraffe are doing?

I will be posting more often once I have a computer. I really appreciate all the donations that have already been received - however we are still short of a few hundred dollars.

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