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Datoga / Barbaig representatives have limited capacity to influence changes desired by their constituencies at the decision-making forums. |
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EMPOWERING PEOPLE |
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The ability of pastoralists to manage ecological uncertainty and spread risks has been reduced significantly. Some of the consequences of the shrinkage of the resources base are decrease in the mobility of herds and change in patterns of resource utilization. This has in turn led to livestock losses and increased level of poverty and food insecurity leading to many youths, women and other able bodies to migrate to urban areas in search of alternative forms of employment. Most of the local people do not have the school, technical or academic qualification that would make it easier for them to find work in, for instance, driving, building or service employment and there are few prospect for obtaining such skills as education opportunities are weak and school provision poor. High level of illiteracy forced the majority of those migrating to the urban areas to work as security guards.
In terms purely subsistence, the Maasai consider 9 cattle or 90 goats/sheep per household to be the borderline of poverty. Below that level the family does not have enough food and hunger is a constant future of its life. Throughout the dry season only light porridge and black tea is consumed and during wet season milk is blended with water for volume. The Maasai calls milk blended with water ‘Oloipusieki’. Nobody dies of hunger, but the poor are constantly malnourished, which is especially debilitating for children. Other problems identified are poor access to socio-economic services, social dislocation, political marginalization and severe poverty.
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