BLOG POST 10: COMMUNITY RESILIENCE CAPACITIES IN THARAKA

BLOG POST 10: COMMUNITY RESILIENCE CAPACITIES IN THARAKA

  This blog post is under development. It seeks to assess resilience capacities at household, community and system levels. It explores the following questions: How widespread are local households and community actually affected by shocks and stresses? How frequently have households been affected by the different shocks and stresses in the recent past? What are the main factors that enable people or community to bounce back to normal life after experiencing a shock and stress? As such, further analysis concerning this theme is required. More insights will emerge from the analysis of the field data and these will be used to update the bog post. In the meantime, the following insights emerge. To start with resilient capacities in Tharaka can be best understood and assessed by examining the following core elements of the local community life: Food economy, household assets, household saving, reserves, and safety nets and other forms of assistance. In addition, the status of core resilience indicators identified in blog post 3 and prevailing adaptive practices to common shocks and stresses should be made.

 Local food economy

 Tharaka food economy is characterized by food shortages due prolonged periods of drought caused by rain failure. People’s attitude (e.g. dependency syndrome) and practices (e.g. quick selling of all the food immediately it is harvested) contributes to food shortage. The main food crops are green grams, millet, pigeon peas, cowpeas, and sorghum. Maize does well in upper agricultural zones such as Mukothima- Gatithini and Karocho-Runguu areas. Green grams are regarded as the cash crops of Tharaka and are rarely grown for household consumption despite its high nutritional value. Millet is grown entirely for household consumption and is hardly sold unless a household has completely run out alternatives. 

Local food economy has been interfered with … households are food insecure; people have developed bad eating habits (traditional foods such as vegetables for instance are not the favourite this days”. Malnutrition has increased due bad eating habits and change of lifestyles.

Balanced diet is no longer used. People used to preserve food in “mururu or munyaki” and was stored there as “nkariabukaaja”.

Most farmers rely on traditional varieties which they recycle every season. However, some farmers use modern or improved varieties which have high chances of success despite the heavy input requirements. Green grams are considered a cash crop and are currently retailing at Ksh 50 or below in most shopping centres. There is heavy brokerage of green grams with brokers (middlemen) buying and selling to more established businesspersons owning food stores in shopping centres. Millet is regarded as staple food for Tharaka people and it is rarely sold because it is meant for home consumption. Even though maize is consumed as the second staple food, it does not do well in most areas of Tharaka (especially the lower parts) unless there is adequate rainfall; good land preparation and use of modern verities with use of required agrochemicals.

In Tharaka livestock is considered as source of wealth and income stability, and a household without livestock in Tharaka is considered poor. This is because majority of households rely on livestock for income to buy other foods (e.g. maize), pay school fees for their children and meet other household needs. Most of the people who went through education have done so courtesy of livestock sales. Demarcation of land to smaller pieces has reduced farm size for many household members and has limited space for keeping livestock as well as agricultural land. The most common kept livestock are the goats, cattle, sheep and chicken. People keep ghosts, cattle, sheep, poultry, and donkeys.

Household assets, savings and reserves

The main household asset is land which has title deed or not. Land owned by household is shrinking in size due subdivision where children benefit from land given to them by their parents and/or relatives. Other major household assists are ploughs, bicycles, wheel barrows, water tanks and mobile phones. All these assets help to reduce vulnerability as they enable households to build their resilience. In most areas in the upper and lower zones, shelter is made of mud walls and mabati roofs. Poor households which cannot afford mabati use glass to thatch their houses. Mud walls and glass thatch roof is common feature in Tharaka and more so in Nkundi, Kamanyaki, Maragwa and Kathangacini areas.

It is not common for households in both sub-counties to save money in a bank. Those who save money in banks or cooperatives are people who are employed or engaged in business. Women are members of groups (especially merry-go-round) which they contribute to and benefit when their time comes. The common method of saving in Tharaka is buying livestock (a goat especially) which is kept and can be sold in time of need.

  

Safety nets and other forms of assistance during shocks and stresses

The main safety net for households and people of Tharaka is reliance on social support system from relatives and friends. Kinship, clanism and other relations (circumcision, baptism, age mates, etc.) are quite pronounced in Tharaka where everybody in Tharaka community is related to one another. These social support systems are useful safety nets when one is faced with a shock or stress.

During famine, vulnerable households receive relief supplies from county and national government, which is given though the administration (DCC and chiefs). However, this assistance is never enough and does not reach all the deserving people. Area managers are instructed by Chiefs or their Assistant Chiefs to select about 3-5 vulnerable households to benefit from the assistance which they find hard to do because members of the public always complain of bias in selection method. Other institutions providing assistance in the two sub-counties are IAS (water and food relief), Caritas (food cash vouchers and relief food), and WFP (food relief and resilience building), FAO (food relief and resilience building). County government department of agriculture provides improved seed verities and helps build resilience.

The available support systems include family, relief, cash for assets, resilience building programs, NGOs – Caritas, Plan International, IAS, - they have some resilience building plans.

Households and community in Tharaka suffer frequently from various shocks and stresses, some of which are widespread and far-reaching implications on the lives of people and their property. People bounce back to normal life if they have been able to lay a good basis for their lives. Those who have gone to school or took their children to school and are now employed, and those who engage in business or own property (livestock, land…) seem to be better able to bounce because they have a source of income.

The social support system where people relied on one another is getting weaker with the changing economic times though the issue of clans and other relationships are still strong. This social support system has been advantageous as well as disadvantageous in that it has helped people to bounce back and has also made them total dependants.

Other support systems include:

•         Begging in turn when depending on who has food.

•         They receive seed from the county government and NGOs.

•         People look for a debt from relatives and friends

•         Children are awarded bursary by children department

•         OVCs, elderly, PWDs benefit from set funds by the government (the aged receive Ksh 2,000 every month).

•         Relocation to better off families.

•         Rely on transfers from well-endowed family members.

•         Women do basketry weaving while mean do brick making for selling.

•         Women survive on the casual labor while men get into illicit local brew and forget about their family responsibilities and leave everything to the wives.

Boys cope by fetching water in the hotels to get food and girls become house helpers.

Households and community in Tharaka suffer frequently from various shocks and stresses, some of which are widespread and far-reaching implications on the lives of people and their property. People bounce back to normal life if they have been able to lay a good basis for their lives. Those who have gone to school or took their children to school and are now employed, and those who engage in business or own property (livestock, land…) seem to be better able to bounce because they have a source of income. The social support system where people relied on one another is getting weaker with the changing economic times though the issue of clans and other relationships are still strong. This social support system has been advantageous as well as disadvantageous in that it has helped people to bounce back and has also made them total dependants.

Local adaptive practices against drought and other climate and environment-related shocks and stresses

Local adaptive practices to drought include planting early, planting early maturing crops and one that one is sure they will grow (e.g. millet and cowpeas), practicing conservation agriculture, saving food for both human and livestock, drying traditional vegetables and saving them so that they can be eaten during drought, they would also use indigenous substances like “Baobab seeds” which could be eaten as food and grinded to make porridge during drought. Baobab when there were plenty of food in households, were not commonly eaten and they were safeguarded for unseen future calamities. There is practice that has been adapted for dealing with pests and diseases though when they strike, people light flesh leaves combined with cow dung to give out smoke (locally known as toogi) to chase away pests. There is also practice that has been adopted for dealing with human diseases that are environmentally induced. In few instance, people used to light traditional herbs, which gave out bas scent, which chased mosquitoes. In very few instances do people boil water to prevent from water borne and food induced diseases like cholera and typhoid. When rains delayed the old people and especially the elders offered “iri” i.e. an appeasing sacrifice. The rain would immediately rain. There were “set apart” shrines used purposely for appeasing. Henceforth, these areas were not interfered with.