Destiny Delayed, but not denied
Busia County, Kenya’s final western frontier, home to a portion of beautiful blue Lake Victoria and the Blue Swallow (Hirundo atrocaerulea). Consisting of seven constituencies- Busia, Nambale, Butula, Bunyala, Samia, Teso North and Teso South Busia County is also home to the Busia Grasslands as well as the Sio-Siteko Wetland.
The Busia Grasslands are a chain of small grassland patches bordered by intensive agriculture, where the farming of maize, sugarcane and livestock are the main activities. They are considered an Important Bird Area (IBA). Their existence is highly threatened by relentless pressure from the large, rapidly increasing human population. They are home to the Blue Swallow- an intra-African migratory species- whose range traverses ten African countries in both its breeding and non-breeding seasons. The species is classified as vulnerable. It winters in the Ruma National Park and Busia Grasslands . A 2007 status Survey by researcher Paul Karuk Ndang’ang’a found that the conversion of this habitat to sugarcane plantations and subsistence agriculture as well as the hunting of the species for food was threatening both this rare bird species and it’s almost extinct habitat.
The Sio-Siteko wetland system, a rich storehouse of fauna and flora spans both Busia and Samia regions in Kenya and Uganda and is part of the wider Sio-Malaba-Malakisi catchment. The wetland consists of a number of interconnected wetland subsystems that drain into Lake Victoria. The Sio-Siteko wetland complex provides several essential ecosystem goods and services such as purifying water that flows into Lake Victoria, It is a source of food-fish- but it also supports agricultural crops such as arrowroot, sugar cane, potato, maize and millet and as a storage of water for domestic and livestock use, as well as providing sand for construction.
The wetland is also an Important Bird Area (IBA) with more than 300 bird species. There are also many mammals such as the Vervet monkey, Otter, Sitatunga, hippo and water mongoose which have tremendous implications for the wetland’s ecotourism potential as well as an alternative to improving local livelihoods which are at the moment primarily based on fishing and horticulture. As with many Kenyan counties anthropogenic pressure in the region such as overgrazing, overfishing, sand harvesting, canal construction and over-abstraction of water and the draining of the wetland for agriculture is affecting the hydrology of the wetland. Due to the widespread food insecurity in the area, the wetlands are everyday being farmed for food production, yet the wetland areas should in fact be put under conservation status for the very same reasons.
Busia County is synonymous with flooding. One area that is particularly prone to flooding is Budalangi constituency. In a 2007 publication of the Lake Abaya Research Symposium on Catchment and Lakes Research, Professor Simon Onywere found that the incidence of floods in Budalangi is unique in frequency and character as it is a flood prone lowland. Just as in the case with the wetlands, flooding is caused by anthropogenic factors that degrade the natural habitat, such as the deforestation of catchment areas, poor agricultural practices, and inappropriate land use systems which often disregard the land potential, its carrying capacity, and limitations of land resources as well as their diversity and distribution.
Flood and draught associated disasters often lead to the loss of life and property, people being displaced, and crops damaged. The government and nongovernmental organizations spend heavily on relief operations and rehabilitation of affected communities. The problems faced by the people here are multilayered. The degradation of agro-ecological systems divests productive resources from rural communities. Professor Onywere also found that economic potential and human settlement patterns are closely linked to the agro-climatic characteristics of the region. There is intense competition for land use and conflicts often result, because this land use does not take into consideration the carrying capacities and limitations of land resources as well as the diversity and distribution.
The problem is compounded further by rapid population increase, increased poverty levels and limited institutional ability to deal with the challenges. These problems can perhaps be mitigated by an understanding of the bigger picture and allowing the local community rather than the government and NGO’s alone to solve the problem. The Structural Adjustment Policies of the 1990’s, liberalized and decontrolled markets. As a condition for receiving aid from the western countries and the international aid agencies, Kenya( and other third world countries)was compelled to agree to trade liberalization and expansion policies, as part of structural adjustment programs (SAPS).
The strategies for trade liberalization policy encouraged moving towards a more outward looking trade regime, which was to potentially strengthen and increase overseas market access for Kenyan products, and support further integration into the world economy. Liberalization led Kenya and African states to open up their frontiers to foreign goods and thus exposed our fledgling economies to fierce competition from well established and stronger economies, at a time when more protection was required. What it in fact did was to worsen the condition of those involved in primary food production in Kenya. Trade liberalization led to an increase of food imports into the country and caused food dumping in local markets, hitting the country’s own farmers. Liberalization also led to an increase in the prices of farm inputs, putting them beyond the reach of most small farmers. Local farmers have not enjoyed tariff protection by the government in order to protect them against artificially cheap imports subsidized by foreign governments. The IMF and the World Bank as part of our loan agreements would not let us raise tariffs as part of the condition of servicing our debt with them. This is extremely unfortunate because the result is the deindustrialization of our economy. Local farmers have had to resort to livelihood strategies harmful to the environment and which only intensify the downward spiral.
Land degradation further reduces the ability of small-scale farmers to invest and therefore reverse the situation, leading to continuous decline. This in turn exacerbates the depletion of nutrients and the ability of the ground to absorb them leads to decreasing environmental resilience, and as a result, increasing vulnerability on an already strained system. Agriculture (the county and nation’s main earner) is fraught with donor dependence, high cost of farm inputs, and lack of access to production assets.
While we wait for the government to write policies and make agreements with the relevant international bodies, we as the true proprietors of this country can take the necessary small steps to reverse the effects of environmental degradation and take our destiny into our own hands.