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About the Turkana Community Foundation
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Against the backdrop of historic, overt and covert discrimination, marginalisation, and isolation of northern Kenya, a renewed hope has arisen within the framework of the Constitution, which divided regions into counties, a move that has seen most of the marginalised regions also enjoy development projects. However, it is realistic to conjecture that the Kenyan government may not have enough resources to make the kind of investment necessary to impact the region. The challenges of improving education and the other aspects of life in Turkana are enormous in scope with no one entity being able to overturn the cumulative disadvantages embedded in historic injustices. Therefore, Turkana Community Foundation is trying to its best to ensure that it impacts on the lives of many deprived people it can manage.
Sam.K is the Program Manager of Turkana Community Foundation.
He was born and raised in Kajiado, and partly in Kakamega- Kenya. He holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration (Finance option) & Sociology from Kenyatta University and a diploma in Project Management from the Kenya Institute of Project Management. Have worked in the non -governmental sector in various departments for local, national & international NGOs. In charge of projects designing, fundraising, and networking.
About the Turkana CommunitY
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Turkana is a nomadic community and due to constant mobility, nomadic pastoralists are likely not to have a place they would consider their permanent home. Men are sometimes forced to separate from their families for months as they travel great distances with their livestock.
The very mobile lifestyle of families in the region is a challenge to the traditional schooling structure as we know it – schoolhouse, classrooms, desks, teaching equipment, and schedules based on the school year. Children are forced to accompany their families on these nomadic expeditions, several months at a time and cover hundreds of kilometers in cruel jungles, hence unable to attend traditional schools.
Parents, being mostly illiterate, are also not in a position to support the formal education of their children while in transit. Therefore, the only inheritance that parents can pass on to their children is livestock – their only asset. Once the children are initiated into youth and adulthood, they are left on their own to take care of their livestock, to marry and have families, thus eliminating possibility of attaining a formal education.
Odds are particularly stacked against girls as they are often forced into early marriage, which adversely impact their opportunities. The nomadic lifestyle has been the tradition for generations; and if there is no change in their life conditions and opportunities, it will continue.
Due to neglect and marginalization, there has not been a concerted effort to develop the region: to either provide alternative sources of income, to irrigate the land to avoid the need for constant movement or to implement innovative alternatives to educating young people as well as the adults in this region. Little is known or understood about pastoralist livelihood.
The general attitude and approach toward nomads has been to narrowly pursue confining these people in tribal villages with a main focus on crop farming. At the core of this approach is the idea of containing the communities as opposed to improving their lives. It leaves contemporary views such as the ‘Turkana and their cattle must be separated,’ ‘Can a Turkana be a Turkana without cattle,’ and ‘Pastoralism is the problem’ to frame stereotypical narratives associated with Northeastern pastoralists.
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Resource Deprivation and Poverty
Turkana is characterized by a myriad of economic deprivation indicators that include poor health, water, and sanitation services; no electricity; inadequate roads, and other physical and social infrastructure; poorly developed, highly ineffective public and community service departments; uneducated population; and limited access to regional, national, and global markets and opportunities.
The climate in the region and the factors listed cause the area to be poorer economically and agriculturally. Livestock is the single-most significant source of income, supplying 60-70% of the total livestock market locally with some for export. The prevalence of drought in the area results in water shortage, crop failure, and death of animals, leading to a compromised livelihood. The lack of food, clean water for drinking and other domestic usage, as well as inadequate sanitation facilities undermines children’s ability to live healthy, quality lives.
School attendance is impacted by food scarcity at home, and children are sometimes forced to contribute to basic family resources instead of attending school. Northern Kenya reports the lowest primary and secondary school enrollment (9.8% and 4.8%, respectively), which is associated with a cycle of poverty, remoteness, insecurity, and the nomadic lifestyle. These are among the lowest school participation rates in the country.
There is also gross disparities between males and females, reflecting the discriminate treatment of girls/women. There are serious issues in the region with the primary to secondary to college education pipeline. Although there is no data reporting on the number of students joining post-secondary institutions from the region, which is problematic, an analysis of the number of students applying for loans from the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) is revealing. For instance, only 68 students from the county in the academic year 2010-11.
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