East African Climate Witness testimonia ls
Final draft – edited by Kimunya, Amani and Alexander - 6 and 7 November 2006
Kenya – Captain Juma
I am Juma Njunge Macharia from Murungaru, a village in an area called Kinangop, 100 km West of Nairobi, Kenya. I am 81 years old and I have lived here since independence in 1963. I have a wife and 9 children.
I am a farmer and an herbal medicine man, a practice I was also re-known for during the fight for independence. My neighbours usually come to see me for treatment; I treat them with herbs, shrubs and trees which I grow my in my yard. I also grow wheat, maize, beans, sweet potatoes and Irish potatoes, and I keep some cows and sheep for milk and meat.
I used to be a Captain in the MauMau movement which was fighting for independence. Since Kenya declared independence in 1963 I have seen many changes to the vegetation in this area. Partly these changes have occurred because of logging of indigenous trees in the forests and because many people in this area started planting eucalyptus trees to drain the swampy areas.
However I have also witnessed remarkable changes in the climate in the last few decades. When I was young the rainy season in the Kinangop area was known to start in mid-April, but it has shifted to June when it used to end. The rainfall pattern has become unpredictable and unreliable. It has become more challenging to plan any agricultural activities due to this.
I have also noticed changes in temperature. Although daytime temperatures seem to have gone up, the number of cold nights appears to have increased as well, occurring in different months. Frost used to come in June and September and we could hardly grow any maize because the frost would destroy it. However, nowadays with good rainfall, we are able to grow our maize and realize a harvest as the effects of frost are not as severe.
The type of cold has changed as well. The month of July used to be cold and misty. I remember this quite clearly, because when I started my practice as a herbal doctor in the ‘60s, I hardly saw pneumonia patients. However, nowadays the cold is much drier. I have noticed this change because of the increasing number of children suffering from pneumonia who are coming to see me as a doctor.
These changes in the weather are concerning me a lot, as they are greatly enhancing other challenges which my community is facing. I understand that these climatic changes are caused by emissions from burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests. I hope that governments will agree a way to stop this, and that the Kenyan government will help by stopping logging and regrowing the forests which have been cleared in the last decades.
Kenya - Mrs Nelly Damaris Chepkoskei
My name is Nelly Damaris Chepkoskei; I am 50 years old; I am a farmer and live in a village called Kipchebor, in the Kericho District in the West of Kenya. I am married and I have 5 children. I grow maize, tea and keep a few dairy cattle on my farm. I also have dedicated 0.75 acres for raising indigenous tree seedlings that I sell. Some of these seedlings are also given to local institutions like schools. In addition, I am a volunteer Community Mobilizer working with the Forest Action Network. My work entails educating the local population on the importance of conserving our forest. I mainly work with women, who I believe have been left behind as far as conservation is concerned.
By working with the women in my community I have heard many stories about changes in our local environment in the past 20-30 years. Many of these changes I have also witnessed my self. This includes uncontrolled clearing of the bushes and trees in virgin forest land to create more land for farming and settlement.
However what is disturbing us most are changes to the weather. For example, rainfall patterns have changed drastically in the last decades. Here in the Kericho District we used to have rainfall throughout the year. I remember clearly that my family celebrated Christmas days when it was raining heavily, but this has changed. Today Christmas is usually dry.
Temperatures have increased in the last decades, even during the rainy seasons, a strange scenario in Kericho District indeed. Unlike 20 year ago, the dry season at present is hotter to the extent that all the grass dries up. This was not the case before, when grass would remain green even during the dry season. This means that there isn’t enough fodder for my cows, leading to a drop in milk production and also income. The soils are also left bare during the dry season leading to erosion at the onset of the rains.
Kericho is a high altitude area and the cold weather used to ensure that mosquitoes could not survive here. However, one of the effects of the higher temperatures is the increased number of mosquitoes resulting in increased incidence of malaria in this district. This started in the ‘80s. Now, people are even dying from malaria, something that was virtually unheard of 20-30 years ago.
Some of the edible insects that the people in my area depended on during scarcity of foods have also gone extinct. This means that my community has become more dependent on what we grow, and more vulnerable to decreasing rainfall and failing crops.
I have also noticed that, with the warmer weather, there are more pests, affecting our crops, and resulting into more use of pesticides. The costs of pesticides means our farming business becomes less profitable; moreover, these pesticides also pollute our environment.
All these changes in our local environment and climate have led to a situation in which food scarcity and poverty has become the order of each year. The situation needs urgent attention.
Tanzania - Mr. Rajab Mohamed Soselo
My name is Rajabu Mohammed Soselo. I am 62 years old, lived in Kunduchi for 42 years. I am married and a father of 7 kids. My house is located about 200m from the current shoreline in Kunduchi area. Kunduchi is a coastal village located 18 km north of Tanzania’s capital Dar Es Salaam. Kunduchi is famous as a tourist destination because of the pristine sandy beaches.
In the past I used to go out fishing with my own canoe. Currently I currently do not own any fishing craft; instead I buy fish from artisan fishers and sell them to consumers in Kunduchi and Dare Es Salaam. The profit accrued from this business is very small, but it is the main source of income to my family.
As a fisherman I have always kept a close eye to the sea and the sea shore. And what I have seen happening to the beach in Kunduchi is worrying me a lot. The beach is gradually being washed away. I think this is due to an increase in the strengths of headwater waves bouncing on the beaches. I have seen how the sea has advanced for about 200m in the last 50 years. The seashore is now much closer to my village, with dramatic consequences. For example, a mosque and five residential houses and have been washed away by sea over the years. These houses all belonged to families which I know very well. It has been a terrible experience for them.
Similarly, the advancing sea has also destroyed an historic fish market that was constructed in mid 1970s.
Another example of the destructive power of the advancing sea is the destruction of the now defunct Africana Hotel in my village. When it was constructed in 1967 the sea was located 200m away from the hotel plot. At that time this distance was deemed safe, as the see had never before advanced more than 100 meters from the hotel site. I remember this quite clearly because at the time I participated as casual laborer during the construction of the hotel. The first signs of shoreline erosion at the hotel site became evident in early 1980s when the beach shelters were being washed away one after the other. Since 1984 the hotel location started receiving fiercer waves, also causing damage to the hotel it self, until it completely collapsed in 1996. The original hotel building has disappeared completely; only three small huts remain today, namely the guards’ shelter, horses’ shelter and a canteen, as these were located farther away from the sea.
It is clear to me that existing beach hotels and more residential houses are currently at increased risk facing the same fate.
I have also witnessed a phenomenon which I think is related. Along the beach near my village various dunes structures used to be commonly found. I have seen these dunes decreasing both in size and numbers over the last decade or so. For example, a locally well-known dune at Mivinjeni, which was located 100m off-Kunduchi beach hotel, has completely disappeared since 1995.
I remember that from 1996 onwards, sea grasses in the sea-bed near Kunduchi started to get buried by sand. I remember this because this was the year in which the population of parrot fish suddenly decreased, also leading to much smaller catches by fishers in Kunduchi.
The reduction in fish catch has seriously affected my business. While the demand keeps increasing and supply is going down, the price of fish goes up. The people I usually sell fish to can’t afford these high prices, so these circumstances are making it increasingly difficult for me to make a living.
I am also noticing other weather related changes, for example the temperatures around Kunduchi have increased. As a result the cold season is not well felt. Also, the rainy season has become shorter, and we are getting less rain with reduced flows of river entering the Indian Ocean. The reduced river flows have caused a significant reduction in the supply of freshwater. This has turned the brackish water near the river mouths more salty, and fish species that were normally caught in brackish water are no longer part of the catch composition. It has also led to poor supply of agricultural products like grains and legumes that are critical for the communities in my village.
All these changes in our climate are reducing the supply of fish and vegetables, among others, and increasing the prices, thus adding to the various other economic and social problems which we face. My community members, my family and I are very concerned about this. I do hope that governments will do whatever can be done to stop these climatic changes. I also hope that measures will be taken to help my community cope with all the changes in our local environment.