Merille, Kenya, June 8 — On a scorching hot mid-morning at Merille, about 413km (257 miles) north of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi and in Marsabit County, Lilian Lelikoo sits under a shade with their baby. Her husband sits on a rock a few meters away, looking away from his wife and daughter as they converse. They are contemplating what to do next to make an income to meet their household needs after the closure of the livestock market that has been their source of income.
The 20-year-old mother of two has been buying and selling livestock together with a group of her women friends for profit. But after the closure of the Merille Livestock Market, the women are now left without a source of income.
“I personally used to make up to Ksh2,000 ($20) on a good day when I use Ksh5,000 ($50) to buy goats that I would later resell. But now, I have been using my savings to cater for our household needs so we can put food on the table,” Lelikoo says.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta announced a number of measures in late March 2020 to curb the spread of COVID-19 after the country registered its first positive case on March 13. These measures included the closure of major markets that would lead to social groupings as the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation advised social distancing among individuals.
Her husband, Isaac Lelikoo, who is also a herder, has been hard hit by the measures as he is not able to change his cattle and goats into cash like he used to easily do every Tuesday at the market place. He would help her wife herd the goats to fatten them before she resells to make more money.
“Now, if one wants to sell, he may be lucky to get a buyer who will come and buy in the field while herding. Such is very rare and the prices drop drastically. At the market, we would get very good prices for our animals and money would be exchanging hands even if one doesn’t sell,” he says.
Edward Lentoror, the Livestock Production Officer at Laisamis Sub-county where Merille falls says that the Merille Market is the largest in the area and that it’s closure has had a negative impact on the lives of the local community members.
“In the sub-county, there are five livestock markets but four of them are feeder markets to Merille market. Those who never used to move with their families and their animals in search of water and pasture have started doing so due to desperation,” he says.
His sentiments are echoed by Tom Lalampaa, the Chief Executive Officer at the Northern Rangelands Trust, says that the closure of the livestock markets is a reason for concern for the pastoralist communities in the north. “This is really stressful for local communities simply because they cannot convert their livestock to cash so they can put food on the table, to meet their medical bills, and to get their clothing,” he says.
But the Lelikoos are not the only ones affected. At the Loisaba Conservancy in Laikipia County, about 356km (221 miles) south of Merille, women have come together to save their community both from COVID-19 and its effects. They are using tailoring skills to make face masks and also make reusable sanitary pads for girls in the community.
Like the Lelikoos, the community here is a pastoralist one and they depend largely on livestock for their survival. But when drought comes, it kills all the animals and leaves them with hunger and famine, something that had for so long forced the women to fell trees for charcoal, further exacerbating climate change and making the droughts more severe.
Until Elsie Modester, a businesswoman from the community who owns the Lewaso cottages advised the women to take tailoring classes after forming the Chui Mama Self-help group. She then supported them with two sewing machines which they used to learn and would later mend clothes for neighbors. Being an hotelier herself and having grown up in the same local community and understands the challenges, she also taught them how to attend to guests and clean around the cottages, and now she employs a section of the women.
Having turned away from destroying trees for charcoal, the women then noticed that the forests growing round them were good for beekeeping. They sought a donation of beehives from World Vision Kenya, an international NGO that is operating in the area which gave them 60 beehives that are now spread around the bushes near the cottages and also four more sewing machines to help the women sew masks and sanitary pads for girls and women around the village.
Margaret Rampai, a 28-year-old mother of five, who is also a member of the Chui Mama group takes a break to go check on the beehives in a bush next to the cottages where they are working from after Modester offered to house them since there are no guests at the moment.
“We learned the value of trees that we had all along been destroying and now we can at least earn something by letting them grow as we can now keep bees in them,” she says.
At the village, 15-year-old Margaret Leadura is busy washing the dishes at her parents’ home. Modester has come to visit her with a pack of sanitary pads made by the women, a face mask, a pant, and soap. Lendura’s mother is the sole breadwinner of the family and a member of the Chui Mama group. Her father lives with a disability and so cannot work. They all depend on their mother.
Leadura is a class eight candidate and is expected to sit her national exam this year. Since schools closed, she has run out of sanitary pads that used to be supplied by the government at school but is very thankful for the women group for coming to her rescue with the reusable sanitary pads.
The women also traditionally made beads that they sold to guests at the cottages who were on Safaris and would spend there. They would as well perform traditional folk songs to entertain them. But since the stopping of international flights dies to COVID-19, there are no guests at the cottage and business has gone down, leaving them to only depend on the sale of honey and face masks.
“The markets in Australia and America have all shut down, yet they were the biggest markets for beadwork. That means that the source of income have been hit and the women and their families will continue to suffer,” says Lalampaa.