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Kenya

Lamu County: Drought Early Warning Bulletin for October 2014

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Situation Overview

  • An average of 46.78 mm of rainfall was received in the County for the month of October. Mpeketoni received 49 mm of rainfall for 2 days, Witu 60 mm for 2 days, Hindi 48.4 mm for 2 days while Amu recorded 29.7 mm for 3 days. Compared to the 8 year long-term average of 111.06 mm, the average amount of rainfall received during the month of October was much lower than the long term mean. This was a sign of failure of the short rains.

  • The main sources of water within the county during the month of October were: - shallow wells accounting for 41.67%, followed by boreholes at 25%, Traditional River wells was third at 16.67%, Natural Rivers and Djabias were fourth and they accounted for 8.33% each.

  • Household watering distance decreased from 1.38 km in September to 1.13 km during the month of review. This decrease in distance was attributed to a slight increase in the amount of rainfall from the previous month and the water rationing which was being done in the Pastoral and Mixed Food/Cash/Livestock Livelihood Zone areas of Witu.

  • Average grazing distance was 4.38 km, an increase from last month’s distance of 4.08km. This distance was greater than the year 2008-2013 long-term average of 4.17 km. The increase in distance was attributed to pastoralists seeking fresh pastures for their herds further from their homesteads due to overgrazing of available grazing fields by immigrant herds of livestock from Tana- River and Ijara.

  • Generally, the body condition for cattle and goats was fair in the Mixed Farming Livelihood Zone, between fair and good in the Pastoral Livelihood Zone. The animal body condition has started to deteriorate due to the outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease and the prolonged short rains dry spell.
    Things may grow from bad to worse should the short rains fail.

  • Average cattle price for a 2-3 year old bull was Kshs. 16,888.45 up from Kshs. 14,050 the previous month while that of goats increased from Kshs. 2,831 recorded the previous month to an average of Kshs. 2,958.35 in October. This increase in livestock price could be attributed to the improved body condition of livestock across all the Livelihood Zones.

  • Average price of a 90 kg bag of maize was Kshs. 2,088 a drop from Kshs. 2,187 the previous month. This decline in price was attributed to the recent harvests that have ensured that there’s adequate supply of maize in the market. The average price was above the year (2006-2013) long term-average of Kshs. 1,937.20.

  • The percentage of children in the County at risk of malnutrition was 2.40% down from last month’s figure of 3.07% .This was as a result of readily available milk for consumption by the children. Food was also easily available following the recent good harvests.

  • Milk production decreased slightly from 0.81litres per household in September to 0.78 litres in October. This was above the (2008-2013) long-term average of 0.71 litres per household. This slight drop in milk production was as a result of herds having to seek pastures far away from their homesteads.

  • The main source of income was casual labour accounting for 40.53% of income sources, followed by petty trade at 26.33%, sales from crops came third at 11.83% while sale of livestock was fourth at 8.28%.The rest of the income sources were: - formal employment, remittances and sale of wood products accounting for 5.62%, 3.85% and 3.55% respectively.

  • With rainfall amount being too much lower than the long term average, an increase in grazing distance, a drop of cereal prices as a result of loss of external markets due to insecurity, outbreak of foot and mouth diseases in most parts of the county as a result of less rainfall, increased water shortage in Kiunga, Witu, Didewaride and Soroko due to less rainfall leading to water rationing. The drought warning stage in the county for the month of October was on alert with a worsening trend.