In the wee hours of the 4th of August 2023, a group of community members, planning organizations, the media and allies started a 6-day walk from Gafarsa in Isiolo County to Archer’s post in Samburu county, a 155kilometers distance as we collectively advocated for the Restoration and Conservation of the Ewaso Ng’iro River.

Ewaso Ng’iro Basin is the second largest basin in kenya after tana, it cuts across ten counties and more than 10million people depend on it. It is inextricably intertwined with the culture and heritage of the communities and thus unifies and divides them in the basin in equal measure. These communities have managed to conserve and sustainably use the resources within the basin using Indigenous traditional knowledge over the years, but in this period of increasing human population, large-scale agricultural activities, infrastructure development, and climate change, the river dries up, gets polluted, and is contested.

Climate change has led to an increase in the frequency and intensity of natural disasters, natural resource scarcity, and environmental degradation. Water users, including communities, livestock and wildlife, the public sector, and corporate entities, both upstream, midstream, and downstream, often lack a shared understanding of the threats facing the river system and fail to effectively collaborate around integrated water resources management. This has led to conflicts and an escalation of the threats facing river systems.

Before our departure, we planted trees at Gafarsa Mixed Secondary School and flagged off the 11th edition of the most prestigious annual event “THE CAMEL CARAVAN” with blessings from elders of the Borana community of Isiolo County. On the first day, we walked 20 km to Mbarambate where we camped at the shores of the Ewaso Ng’iro River engaging community members in discussions and sensitizing them on the importance of the protection of their shared natural resources. We also addressed the challenges facing the Ewaso Ng’iro River causing the drastic water flow reduction and we together forged ways of restoring the ecosystem; the communities from all the corners camped cooked and ate together as a symbol of peace and unity. These activities were carried out at every stopping point during the walk.

On the 2nd day, we walked a distance of 34kms to Malkadaka where we set camp at Malkadaka primary school and engaged community members and later showed them a video of the previous Camel Caravans to show the decline of the river over the years.This will make communities understand the urgency of the protection ,restoration and conservation of the river that is their main source of water.

On the 3rd day we walked a distance of 23kms from Malkadaka to Gotu where we camped at Camp Simpirre – a culture and indigenous knowledge documentation and publishing center. Dr Hussein Isack the founder took us through the developed information knowledge banks from where current and future generations can retrieve their ancestral indigenous knowledge that will help them go back in their communities’ historical timeline and recreate their diminished languages and cultural practices documented and archived in print and electronic formats. We later held community engagements and watched documentaries.

On the 4th day we left Gotu for camp funan a distance of 5okms which we had to be carried by vehicles through Shaba Game Reserve to avoid any conflict with wildlife. We camped in the wild to enjoy the serenity and experienced the fulfillment in interaction with nature to remind us the importance of conserving our resources.

On the 5th day we walked 20kms to KWS Complex in Archers post where we had cultural music and dance from indigenous local communities’ musicians ahead of the World indigenous people’s day to be held the following day. The dances and music were to remind us of our diversity which should be a source of our pride and strength as indigenous people. Messages of peace and conservation were shared as a reminder of how we have always lived in harmony with nature and one another.

On 9th August 2023 which was the 6th day of the Camel Caravan walk, we marked the World Indigenous People’s Day. All communities who benefit from the Ewaso Ng’iro River gathered at Archers Post to discuss ways in which they can collectively work together to save the already dying river, which will also help in solving the ongoing conflicts over natural resources. The presence of government officials and or state agencies in the celebration provided an interactive session whereby they were challenged to be our eyes at top-level meetings and conferences and advocate for equal sharing of shared resources like the Ewaso Ng’iro River and also push for policies that help the indigenous communities.

Water is our most important resource and all life on Earth depends on it. Despite its importance, water is becoming far more scarce, as regional sources disappear or are depleted. At the moment, forty percent of the world’s people are being affected by water scarcity and, if not addressed, some 700 million could be displaced by 2030 in search of water.

As a subproject of the Inclusive Conservation Initiative (ICI), a Global Environment Facility (GEF)-funded initiative co-implemented by Conservation International and IUCN, at IMPACT we recognize that to build resilience against climate change and to serve a growing population, an integrated and inclusive approach must be taken to managing this finite resource. This World Water Day, celebrated under the theme” Accelerating change to solve the water and sanitation crisis”, we reflect on water scarcity here in Kenya and on the importance of the Ewaso Ng’iro River in tackling this issue and in supporting our livelihoods.

Water is a finite resource and should be used sustainably by the present for the future generation. We Indigenous pastoralists understand this and have been great stewards of water sources, the most important one being the Ewaso Ng’iro River, which supports our way of life.

The Ewaso Ng’iro River stretches from the North-Western slopes of Mount Kenya and the Aberdares ranges, through the Laikipia plateaus to the arid and semi-arid lands of Northern Kenya, covering about 10 counties, and flowing for about 445 miles (716 km) before emptying into the Lorian Swamp, rejuvenating River Juba and draining into the Indian Ocean.

The river basin supports more than 3.6 million people in our territory, 70% of which are Indigenous pastoralists, and is a source of revenue for our agro-pastoral and pastoral communities.

For our communities, the river basin and its tower are a critical resource in addressing water scarcity issues and supporting the economic growth of the Northern drylands. They supply us with fresh water, conserve biodiversity and ecosystems, regulate local climate, and support our livelihoods.

The river also has sentimental value to us in Northern Kenya. In our Indigenous worldview, the river is intertwined with our culture and heritage. Historically, we have managed and protected the river using our Indigenous traditional knowledge through various cultural practices, communal sharing, and sustainable use of the resources within the basin.

We refer to water as ‘Enkare o lowuaru’ (wild animal water), to signify that water is found in the wild and belongs to all, including plants and wildlife, and thus we believe that nobody should own it and that instead everyone should share whatever is available for the benefit of all.

The Ewaso Ng’iro River is used by farming communities upstream, agro-pastoralists midstream, and pastoralists downstream, and by wild animals and plants alike. It is of paramount importance for our pastoralist way of life, from providing domestic and livestock drinking to supporting our cultural practices, such as the Maa rites of passage. When we perform these rites, we draw water from the river, mix it with milk, and splash it onto those involved to drive away evil eyes, cleanse, or as a unifying factor for our community.

The Ewaso Ng’iro River ecosystem is also home to significant sacred sites and ceremonial plants that have important meanings for our pastoralist communities living along it. Among them is the Reteti (Ficus wakefieldii), a sacred plant which grows at the banks of the Ewaso Ng’iro river and its tributaries. Our Maa community makes sacrifices under this plant and we consider it to be so sacred that even the plants that surround it can’t be cut because in our culture harming a tree is believed to bring curse on oneself. Another sacred plant for us is the Loperia/lpeeri (Cyperus papyrus), which is used by women during their traditional convergence meeting and ritualprayers that we call olamal loo nkituak in Maa language (in Samburu it is known as Ntorosi). The plant is carried and attached to special gourds, and the women in our community use it to splash milk into the Ewaso Ng’iro River as they pray. Water is sacred and is used in several rituals and ceremonies for blessings.

Over the years, our communities have used Indigenous traditional and ecological knowledge, which includes traditional seasonal calendars, well-managed settlement plans, and grazing systems with distinct wet and dry season areas, to manage the Ewaso Ngiro Ecosystem as a shared resource.

During periods of acute droughts, our communities had to utilize tree leaves for fodder. Since in our Indigenous cultur we believe that trees are alive, we are not allowed to cut live trees, so our communities gathered the fodder by pruning and cutting the tree’s branches, and they ensured that a branch was left on every tree to breathe and continue living.

Thanks to these traditional practices, we have ensured the protection of the basin and managed to support the livelihood of our communities. The dying of the Ewaso Ng’iro river, however, is threatening the existence of the sacred tree species growing around the basin, the co-existence between communities and wildlife, and our livelihoods and cultural practices.

To tackle these challenges, we will be working through the Inclusive Conservation Initiative (ICI) to promote the revitalization of the basin’s ecosystem by encouraging our communities to fully embrace and bring back our traditional best practices and by strengthening the existing traditional systems and structures that govern them

By Silole Malih, Ramson Karmushu, and William Naimado (IMPACT Kenya)