By James Ratemo

Enyaman Awoi’s voice is shrill and feeble. As she speaks, one would easily think she’s whispering and her words are barely audible.

On her trembling hand is a piece of goat carcass, which she chews to quell the biting hunger. The dry carcass has been sun-dried for days for preservation.

Ms Awoi has no choice but to survive on this; hoping to find some water to boil it before she and her ten children take it for supper. The family has spent weeks without enough to eat.

"I travelled the whole night to this centre because I heard people were bringing us food. For a month now, I have never seen maize flour or beans. I survive on mukoma (palm fruits)," she said through an interpreter. She neither understands English nor Swahili.

Turkana residents queue for relief supply donated by Fly540 Fight Company. They have been surviving on sun-dried goat carcasses for food. Photo: John Matua/Standard

She lost more than 3,000 head of goat — her only lifeline — to the recent drought. But she is not alone. Many other residents share the same agony.

The scorching sun has left land in Lochor-Aikeny village in Turkana bare and barren. Men, women and children have to walk for more than 30km in search of drinking water.

The young and energetic men have left their homes in search of livestock pastures hundreds of kilometres away.

With the acute shortage of food and drinking water, the residents now depend on wild fruits and livestock carcases for food. The shallow natural springs in the area have dried up and women trek for more than 30km to access water.

But the village name, Lochor-Aikeny (bird’s borehole in Turkana) perhaps explains the origin of their agony. A resident says, "Because people cannot access water, the irony in the name means it is only a bird that can survive in this area since it can fly far away to find the precious commodity."

More than 1,570 residents who gathered to receive food relief flown in by Fly540 Aviation from Nairobi face the same situation. The 14 metric tonnes of maize flour donated by Kenya Commercial Bank and Mumuks Mandal temple and distributed by the Red Cross may alleviate the awry situation but for how long?

The weak, tired and hungry residents cannot even queue for long hours to get the food relief. Some of them kneel as they receive the three 2kg packets of maize flour each. The hopeless, helpless and hapless residents say they are getting used to the life of "staring at death in the face" daily.

When The Standard on Sunday team accompanied relief supply entourage to Lochor Aikeny village, 70km from Lodwar town, on Tuesday, the situation was disheartening, moving and despicable. The badly emaciated women, malnourished children crying for food and water, hapless men who sat in groups awaiting food was overwhelmingly moving.

The area chief Moses Lokal says World Vision, which distributes food to residents every month, is overwhelmed, adding the rations only reach few and is never enough to sustain them for a month.

Lokal says the Government should empower the residents to diversify their economic activities instead of depending on pastoralism.

He says the aid dependence syndrome has contributed to the area’s vicious cycle of abject poverty.