Community-based systems for managing natural resources are facing challenges, putting the resources at risk. The dedha system needs to be revived and strengthened to achieve sustainable management.
The Boran community prides itself in having robust traditional natural resource (pasture and water) governance systems and community institutions for natural resource management. Referred to as Dedha, the community institution ensures that standing forage near permanent source of water is preserved for the dry season. It restricts grazing in these areas during periods when alternative grazing resources are available. However, adherence to these laws is declining and the power of Boran customary institutions to enforce these regulations is being undermined in a number of ways. The council of elders, which is the custodian of these unwritten rules and regulations locally, no longer have the capacity or authority to enforce them as it had done prior to colonial rule. [1]
In the 2011 protracted drought, pastoralists lost a lot of livestock to a ravaging drought leaving them poor and more vulnerable. This experience led to a call for action and resolve by Waso-boran pastoralists to have Dedha revived and strengthened to play its role in planning and managing of pasture and water in a more sensible and sustainable way.
Revival of Dedha
In 2012 and 2013 with support from the Adaptation Consortium, (currently piloting County Climate Change Fund (CCCF) mechanism in Kitui, Makueni, Garissa, Isiolo and Wajir counties) communities in six wards of Isiolo County undertook Resilience Assessments and prioritised the strengthening of natural resource governance to significantly move themselves from vulnerability to resilience. Subsequently, funding from CCCF was committed to finance an intensive sensitization programme that saw Dedha revived to sustainably plan grazing areas, access and to undertake surveillance. The surveillance led to preservation of strategic drought reserves like Yamicha in Merti and Kinna sub-county drought reserve that border Meru National Park as captured in Isiolo Community Resource Atlas.
The revitalization of Dedha paid off in the subsequent years. In 2013, 2014, 2015 and early months of 2016, Kinna and Merti pastoralists successfully pulled through two consecutive droughts with minimal loss of livestock. This is supported by National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) 2015 drought assessment that showed that despite poor vegetation cover, other social economic indicators remained the same.
2016 Depressed rainfall and Political interference
Revival of Dedha was fought by political elites and commercial large herd keepers who wanted to maintain the status quo for selfish interest. During the 2017 election campaign and vote hunt, this interference intensified with a unilateral decision by the political leadership that greatly undermined Dedha and the good plans by the community to survive 2016-2017 droughts.
In the case of Kinna, the rains received in 2016-17 were very little – the available pasture as a result was only enough for the locals to survive through the long dry spell. However, 2016-2017 being a campaign and election year, political undertones intensified and Dedha got divided along local political camps. Political elites in their vote hunt, didn’t want to spare any move that they thought would earn them more votes and didn’t care if it was in total disregard of the structured way of negotiating access among other norms. Consequently, going against community advice, pastoralists from other parts of the county were allowed into Kinna. The end result was an unsustainable number of herds that placed so much pressure on the limited pasture that more than 80% of herds were lost.
The situation was more or less the same for Yamicha drought reserve in Merti sub-county. For many years, Yamicha drought reserve has not only served locals in the event of extreme drought but also served as a haven for pastoralists from neighbouring counties of Wajir, Garissa and Marsabit. This, however, changed in the 2016-17 droughts. The decision by County leadership to set up a school and settlement in the heart of one of the critical drought grazing area and impose a parallel “politically correct” group to run the affairs of the strategic boreholes, led to the larger population being vulnerable. The group did business by opening up the boreholes prematurely, inviting those who were ready to pay a colossal amount of money as a good will gesture to access water, thus eating into the preserved pasture.
As a result, left with no option at the critical hour of severe drought, the larger Merti Sub-county was forced to move to Marsabit County to seek survival. While in Marsabit, most of them lost their entire herd but more devastating was the loss of many young lives to the raids made on them in the unknown terrain of Harr Korri at the border of Isiolo and Marsabit.
Lessons learnt
Community Natural Resource Management Institutions (CNRMIs) need to steer off politics of the day in managing community resources. This is because political elites will always take advantage of this situation especially during the campaign periods.
It is important to re-look at how our drought fall back areas are being managed. Communities lack authority /instruments (by laws) and financial support that will enable them to effectively manage their drought reserves. The Natural Resource Management (NRM) bill (by the communities of Isiolo) which collates rules and regulations for managing resources better, is currently with the assembly, and it is important that this bill is not only passed but the provisions in it operationalised and any support required by the community be made available to them.
Political leadership need to involve the locals and get wider views of the community before reaching any decision that will impact on how their resources can be accessed by neighbouring communities.
[1] Evolving Customary Institutions in the Drylands An opportunity for devolved natural resource governance in Kenya? –Daoud Tari and James Pattison
