Welcome to Katilu, where men are cultivating gender equality through farming
Mr James Eiton on his pawpaw farm on August 18, 2024. He is growing vegetables and fruits to bolster food security and his children’s immune systems.
What you need to know:
- They grow cow peas, pawpaw, watermelon, spinach and tomatoes, which they also sell to get incomes to support their families.
- With support from Turkana County and USAID Nawiri programme, these men are challenged to play a key role in fighting malnutrition at the household level.
In Turkana culture, it is the responsibility of a woman to feed his family. Being a pastoral community, it is an uphill task, especially when the family is located in banditry-prone areas like Katilu village in Turkana South near the border of Turkana and West Pokot.
After losing livestock to bandits in 2022, families, like that of Ms Melvin Akunoit, had no option but to rely on relief food that mainly included maize, beans and rice.
“All our livestock were stolen in the grazing fields near the Turkwel River, meaning that I could not get milk for my children, sell some goats to buy fruits and vegetables for my family, or even afford healthcare services," Ms Akunoit says.
Men, whose attempts to recover stolen livestock hit a snag, lost their social status, as livestock is not only considered as a source of prestige and men with large herds are respected.
Just on the banks of the Turkwel River, we find Mr James Eiton removing weeds from one of sukuma wiki nurseries. His farm has cowpeas, pawpaw, watermelon, spinach and tomatoes. He is quick to recall that his one-acre farm is on a piece of land that once served as the grazing field for his goats and sheep before bandits stole them.
This is where he is growing vegetables and fruits to bolster food security and his children's immune systems.
Mr James Eiton attends to his sukuma wiki nursery in Katilu village, Turkana South, on August 18, 2024. He is growing vegetables and fruits to bolster both food security and his children's immune systems.
“My effort to recover the livestock was not fruitful. The armed bandits were more than 50 and we were only seven herders. I decided to take up farming as I had no other livelihood. I have realised it is more peaceful to farm than to always worry about when the bandits will strike again,” Mr Eiton says.
With support from Turkana County and USAID Nawiri programme, these men are challenged to play a key role in fighting malnutrition at the household level.
“We have community health promoters in the villages who are facilitated to train us in types of nutritious vegetables and crops we can grow to ensure our families remain healthy.”
Mr Eiton says that despite not having livestock to be recognised as a Turkana man, his five children are healthy and the family is assured of a reliable source of income for school fees, medication and diets of their choice.
On the next farm, a group of young men, led by Shadrack Ekitela, 23, grow grass to save their livestock from scarcity of pasture during drought. Their eight acres have evergreen African foxtail grass, known scientifically as Cenchrus Ciliaris that is not only good for hay production but can also withstand drought. It is large, strong and deeply rooted.
Mr Ekitela says that now that their parents lost most of their livestock to bandits and drought, they saw the need to embrace pasture production and sell hay to herders in safe villages that lack pasture.
“Forty of the 100 members are young men with small families who obviously know that there are no livestock to inherit. With pasture production, we are assured of a source of income to buy goats that can provide milk for our children,” he says.
The group has a ready market at Lokichar, Kalemngorok and Nakabosan villages. It also supplies hay to two agrovets in Lodwar town. USAID Nawiri programme is supporting them to increase their acreage by clearing mathenge weed and constructing shallow wells for water storage.
Shadrack Ekitela, 23, on a farm in Katilu village, Turkana South, on August 18, 2024. His group sells hay to earn an income and buy goats that provide their families with milk as part of efforts to tackle malnutrition.
“We have now commercialised pasture production and are selling hay at Sh350 per bale for herders in nearby villages and at Sh500 per bale to our customers in Lokichar, Lodwar and Kalemngorok towns," Mr Ekitela says.
He says that this month, they sold more than 1,500 bales of hay, which earned them Sh500,000. The group had benefitted from certified seed donation from the County Department of Agriculture and further training facilitated by USAID Nawiri.
Besides fortunes from hay production, they sell pasture seeds at Sh1,000 per kilo. Mr Isaac Echapan, USAID Nawiri resilient livelihoods officer for Turkana South, observed that pasture scarcity, exacerbated by frequent and prolonged droughts, have left livestock malnourished and unable to produce milk or fetch favourable prices in the market.
“African foxtail grass is popular for feeding goats and has more protein, vitamins, and minerals than grass hay, typically. It is a good choice for feeding milking goats as it has more protein, energy and calcium.
For members like Mr Ekitela, it will ensure that his family has access to milk for nutrition, and in case he sells one of his goats, it will fetch better income because it will be healthy," Mr Echapan says.
County Director of Nutrition and Dietetics Saada Loyokon commends efforts by men and development partners in tackling malnutrition, explaining that Turkana South Global Acute Malnutrition rate has decreased.
The latest Standardised Monitoring and Assessment of Relief and Transitions (Smart) survey has shown that the county’s Global Acute Malnutrition (Gam) rate decreased by five per cent from the initial 26.40 per cent in June 2023 to 21.8 per cent in June 2024.
“The survey revealed that Turkana South showed a significant improvement with the Gam rate dropping from 32.7 per cent to 23.7 per cent in the same period, as locals, especially men, are taking part in improving access to nutritious food crops," Ms Loyokon says.
The Smart survey is conducted to determine the prevalence of malnutrition among children aged 6–59 months, and women of reproductive age in all sub-counties.
