The situation is really now quite alarming for the pastoralist community, Kenya

The situation is really now quite alarming for the pastoralist community, especially where I come from, explains Jane Naini Meriwas, a Yaaku from Kenya (Africa). Traditionally, we say that in this season it is rain, in this other season it is dry. So the community makes plans. As my community is nomadic, we move with the livestock. If it will be a very long dry spell, then we use a traditional set-up where we select places where animals can graze, and other places that we will protect. And then other times, we will move. So when it is dry, people migrate. However, if you cross from your own district to this other district, there are already people there. We border with the Samburu, Borana and Bantu. The people here do agriculture. Also we border with other settlers. The lands that are actually left to graze have become really limited. In 2000, we really experienced a lot of drought. For a whole year there was no rain. It was terrible. The drought forced the community to migrate. It was so alarming that the government had to open the very big Park Mount Kenya where they gave the pastoralists permission to take their animals. But to move to Mount Kenya, you have to walk 100 km along a fenced road. The animals are weak and because it's fenced, they don't have water or grass. So thousands of animals died along the road. You can find many carcasses when you go to Mount Kenya. Since 2001 the rain pattern has now changed completely. When the rain pattern changes, there is no way to prepare the community.