Laikipia County is targeting to benefit from a three-year research project that is aimed at addressing mental health issues among the pastoralist communities in Northern Kenya region.
According to the multi sectoral stakeholders from Laikipia County Health Sector, Drought Authorities, members of local communities and environmental led organizations while speaking during a Climate Action workshop in Nanyuki Town said that climate change had resulted to mental illness among women and children hence need to find a lasting solution to the menace.
Laikipia County Executive Committee (CEC) in charge of Health Dr. Albert Taiti said that loss of livestock among pastoralists’ communities during drought was also linked to increased mental health problems.
“A majority of people from Laikipia North depend on livestock and when the livestock is wiped out by drought, it can easily lead to mental illness due to lack of livelihood,” said Dr. Taiti.
A research which is being implemented by African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC) will help to determine the impact of climate change on nutritional status of children under the age of five and women of reproductive age in the pastoral areas which the stakeholders pointed out they bore the brunt of drought, floods among other ecological disasters.
“Poverty among the youth as a result of climate change also makes them fall victims to mental health problems because jobs that could be available are lost in drought or floods situations,” the CEC added.
Additionally, APHRC research scientist Dr. Alice Karanja decried that insufficient decision making and lack of proper policies to tackle climate change challenges was also a major concern which had led to an increased poverty index among the communities living in dry lands hence catalysing mental illness.
“Impacts of climate change especially in the pastoral communities are highly affected due to increasing floods, drought and farmers losing their livestock as a result. This has been our major concern which we are focusing on to make visible the issues of climate change through our research,” said Dr. Karanja.
She further noted that drought conditions increased the odds of wasting and underweight among people living in these regions by nearly 50 percent, with about 33 percent of children under five years from dry areas being stunted. This is according to the APHRC research conducted recently.
“We realised that about 30 percent of children under five years are currently stunted and malnutrition for women continues to increase as the years go by. We are hoping to work with communities to promote agro-ecological practices including farming diversification for improved livelihood,” she revealed.
On his part, a youth from Rumuruti Township in Laikipia Sammy Edupu encouraged young people’s involvement in developing climate change policies aimed at making informed decisions and at the same time urged for awareness creation on environmental issues.
The 2022 Kenya National Adolescent Mental Health Survey led by the same APHRC research institute indicated that 44.3 percent of adolescents aged 10-17 years had reported experiencing mental health problems in the past 12 months and with anxiety being most prevalent with 26.7 percent.
The same research is being carried out in the Samburu and Turkana Counties.
By Muturi Mwangi
