Its early afternoon at Koronder village, 55 kilometres from Turbi town, the ride is certainly jerky occasioned by the dilapidated road condition. As we drive deeper into the village, we are greeted by sights of numerous carcasses sprawling on the already lifeless pebbles and the bare surrounding. I suddenly have a long face like a wet weekend and in my head for a second, I think I am being delusional. So I pick up my broken self and we keep driving further in. For the animals that are lucky to survive, their body condition is worrying to say the least. The faces of the are even more emaciated than the animals themselves. So we decide to stop by one of the herds of shoats and the situation is awful. I try as much as I can to fight back my…

In a bid to improve water access to community members from Ambalo Location of Moyale Sub- County, PACIDA Kenya has partnered with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and Caritas Germany to excavate a 35,000 cubic meters water pan. The area is dry and community members trudge long distances in search of water for household and livestock use. Within Ambalo location, there are only three small capacity earth pans which whenever it rains, their water could only last for three weeks before diminishing. This is due to the high absorbent nature of the earth pan soil. The only other water source around is a borehole, whose water happens to have high salinity levels, above the World Health Organization acceptable salinity level . Barako Guyo Koro, a 32- year old gentleman says he has been a victim…

December, 2016 El Besso, North Horr Sub-county- Iya Qoto, a female herder residing in one of the outskirts far flang villages of El Besso, 30 kilometres from El Besso watering point and 70 kilometres from North Horr town of North Horr Sub-county, had made it a routine every four days a week at 3.00am to start her journey to the closest water point, El Besso. Each day she set out on a journey to the borehole, the trekking distance was too far that it lasted two days before reaching the water point. Her worst days were when there was a mechanical break down. She could camp by the water point with hopes that it would be repaired soon. “One day I got to the borehole, my animals and I were stranded with no idea of where to turn to. Days…

Access to safe water and sanitation are essential to human health, environmental sustainability and economic prosperity. For Marsabit County to get to the desired level, great strides have to be made by different stakeholders including embracing the communal pre-paid water meters which ensures equitable access to water regardless of your social standing in the community, besides of course boosting revenue collection from water sale. With prepaid metering, the consumer is in control of their own water usage, as they decide how much water to purchase. The prepaid metering solution ensures that the consumer can now budget for their water bill as per their purchasing power. PACIDA through Maji Milele Limited with funding from USAID through Food for the Hungry has come up with an innovative sustainable solution to addressing better access to water in at least three locations within Marsabit…

Our 2018 report highlights some of our key achievements in line with our mission to improve the well-being of vulnerable arid and semi-arid land communities through sustainable development.   Download report here: Annual Report 2018 Narrative Annual Report 2018 Operational Outputs Lack of adequate water was the main constraint to sustainable livelihoods in many parts of the county. In other areas, rapid run-off during the 2018 rainy season resulted into high proportion going to waste or becoming destructive. Conflict further limited livelihood options and shared management of natural resources, compounding vulnerability and decreasing resilience. “Conflict resolution and peaceful coexistence are integral components of PACIDA’s thematic programming in northern Kenya. This includes border counties with hardship and volatile environments as well as Ethiopia’s southern regions,” says Patrick Katelo, Executive Director of PACIDA.   PACIDA reached 480,000 livestock during mass deworming and…

“I always have business ideas. But capital has always been the biggest obstacle. I used to sell water to make a living. The income barely met daily family needs. Now I am running a shop and I have high hopes as business is good,” says Nashere Loomaabok, a member of Ariyon women’s group in Illeret, Marsabit County of Kenya. A mother of 7 children, she says she is lucky to be able to feed her family even as the drought is affecting the rest of her community members. With an elderly husband who is mostly resting, she has been left to cater for the needs of the family. Her children are of between three and 15 years old. Four of them are attending school with one in secondary school away from Illeret and three in primary schools. The others are…

“If there was no peace among the communities of Marsabit County, there will be no education and no future for us,” this was the message from pupils during an inter-school peace initiative held in 2018. The event was held at Tiigo School brought together pupils from six schools. Schools from Borana community included Elle Borr, Rawan and Funan Qumbi primary from Sololo Sub County. Three schools from the Gabbra community included Turbi Nomadic Girls, Turbi Primary and Tiigo School from North Horr Sub County. Each school was represented by about 30 pupils from their peace club membership. The theme of the day was “I am not only a child, but a peace maker too”. The event was officially launched by the Sub County Deputy Commissioner. Others in attendants included ward administrator, chiefs, and county peace cohesion and integration officer. Also present…