A resident of Kowuor Village in Homa Bay County in Western Kenya, Onyango was still reeling from effects of the severe drought that affected parts of eastern and western Kenya between last November and June this year. From owning 35 head of cattle, he is down to six.

Homa Bay and the neighbouring Kisumu County, which ironically are on the shores of Lake Victoria, and parts of Vihiga and Kakamega counties in western Kenya, have since the beginning of the year been on a drought alert — with little or no rain at all, leading to rivers, boreholes and ponds drying up, and no pastures for animals.

This year’s drought was, ostensibly, an extension of last year’s dry spell which the Food and Agriculture’s Organisation (FAO) declared a “national disaster”. It put some 2.7 million people in dire need — the most vulnerable being the elderly, sick, mothers and children under five.

Fifteen years ago, 45-year-old Adam Kidega recalls returning to the lake shores at Dunga, a longtime fishing village south of Kisumu Town, after a night fishing with his boat full of fish.

“It was always a bonanza. Today, it is a very different story,” he recalls.
Despite spending a whole night out there on the lake, Kidega says like several other fishermen, one returns to the shore, with a handful of fish if lucky. If you want to be very lucky with the catch, you have to wander a little deeper into the lake, which is problematic, especially at night.
Both Onyango and Kidega’s accounts point to one thing — human activity is squarely to blame for the ever-changing climate.

The Dunga Beach area, like most parts of Kisumu Town bordering Lake Victoria, is heavily colonised by water hyacinth, putrid algae and other invasive aquatic plant that won’t let the fish breed. And they flourish due to the organic pollutant material that are carried by the rivers draining into the lake from near and far in western and central Kenya.