Oxfam began working in Kenya in 1963. We support local partners working with subsistence farmers in Western Kenya and the Coast, pastoralists in northern Kenya, and in informal urban settlements in Nairobi and Mombasa. We also respond to emergencies in these areas where the need arises.

We work with over 40 partner organisations and the Government in eighteen districts, and nationally, in addition to working directly with poor communities.

We have about 35 staff based in Nairobi, Wajir and Turkana. We focus on five main areas:

 

Pastoralism

Oxfam’s Pastoralist Programme was started in the early 1980s as a disaster response in northern Kenya. Today the programme focuses on empowering pastoralist communities to overcome poverty and insecurity.

These communities experience historical marginalisation and lack vital infrastructure such as adequate roads, schools, and market access and health facilities. Perennial conflicts are common among neighboring and cross-border communities because of competition for limited water and pasture.

Because of widespread poverty, the majority of the population in the arid districts do not have secure livelihoods and are highly vulnerable to disasters. The number of families dropping out of a pastoralist way of life is increasing, resulting in many destitute villages around most urban centres. Most of the districts are vast, meaning high operational costs and inability to offer services to all those who need it.

Increasingly HIV and AIDS is a serious thereat to development; a few analyses carried out so far indicate that HIV infection rates are rising and access to information and care is limited.

Although the pastoralist sector contributes to 10 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (according to the Kenya Livestock Marketing Council), very little is ploughed back to support its growth and development, and there is no policy framework on pastoral development at national level.

Oxfam works with local organisations across northern Kenya (Wajir, Marsabit and Turkana) on peace-building activities, improving livelihoods and food availability, water management, education for nomadic herders and women’s rights.

Partners

• Pastoral Integrated Support Program (PISP)
• Arid Lands Resource Management Programme (ALRMP)
• Kenya Livestock Marketing Council (KLMC)
• Arid Lands Development Forum (ALDEF)
• Wajir South Development Association (WASDA)

Peace-building and Conflict Management

Oxfam has been implementing peace-building and conflict management activities in northern Kenya since the early 1990s. In these dry parts of the country, conflicts often arise when pastoralists compete for the few water sources and pasture for their livestock (which they depend on entirely for their livelihoods).

We focus on traditional conflict resolution and peace-building mechanisms, working with partners in 14 arid and semi-arid districts in collaboration with the government, non-governmental organisations and communities vulnerable to insecurity.

We fund national level initiatives through the National Steering Committee (NSC) on national policy advocacy and coordination of peace-building approaches.

We also support a national peace and development network (PeaceNet), a national umbrella body of peace actors. At regional level, cross-border initiatives are developed to enhance co-existence of communities living along the international borders.

Our programme

The programme encourages pastoralists to develop their own organisations through which they can champion their values, claim their rights, and influence those in power to become more responsive to their needs and concerns.

The partners include PeaceNet and the Tegla Loroupe Foundation, peace and development committees in 14 districts and four cross-border interventions that cut across the Karamojong, Somali, Borana and the Maasai-Sonjo clusters.

Through our global Control Arms Campaign we have received over 15,000 petitions in Kenya so far for signing of the arms trade treaty and for control of illicit firearms.

 

Humanitarian Assistance

Throughout 2005 we were providing emergency assistance to people affected by food shortages resulting from an ongoing drought in the north. We are now scaling up as the situation deteriorates further.

 

Sustainable Livelihoods

We work with partners to help poor farming communities improve their livelihoods, by improving farming methods, environmental conservation, supporting alternative income generating activities and improving access to markets which remain inefficient due to poor infrastructure and lack of good market research.

By working at several levels, we not only support communities directly (eg with bee keeping, food processing, organic farming and neem production), but build the capacity of partner organisations to influence the development policies being made centrally.

We also support the Kenyan Government on such issues as trade and agricultural policy development, with a view to making them more applicable to people living in poverty.

Partners we work with in Kenya:

• the Kilifi District Development Programme (KDDP)
• Kwetu Training Centre
• Ortum
• Crepp
• Kima
• membership organisations like KLA and CGA, which work with farmers in agriculture and livestock development, development of water sources, trade and land issues

Education

Despite the Kenyan Government’s declaration of a Free Primary Education (FPE) policy, over 1.7 million children still remain out of school, the majority of whom are street children, living in slums or in marginalised pastoralist communities. Informal or alternative basic education is viewed as “second-grade” education, and it does not receive the recognition or acceptance it needs.

Oxfam works to give children in poor urban settlements and children in pastoralist communities access to basic education. Pastoralists in particular often miss out on school because they migrate seasonally in search of pasture for their livestock.

As a result of our work, Government support to non-formal education among disadvantaged communities in pastoralist areas and in informal urban settlements is being realised, and there is better access to free formal primary education by children in marginalised rural and urban communities.

Urban Education Programme

We support education centres e.g. constructing classrooms, administration offices, dormitories & latrines, providing basic learning materials, teachers’ development and salaries, and strengthening the management of the school committees. We also support the partners we work with to enhance their policy and advocacy work, lobbying for improved education policies.

We are currently working to enlist Government support for a new school under construction on the outskirts of Kibera which will target mainly poorer children from the slum areas.

Pastoralist Education Programme

We bring district education actors together to develop, link and implement long term education strategies with the Government. Through our support to the Coalition of Pastoralist Children’s Education (CPCE), we are helping them lobby for the establishment of a National Commission for Pastoralist Education.

We also support alternative forms of provision of basic education, e.g. mobile schools, feeder schools and boarding schools, which are more appropriate for pastoralist communities than formal school environments.

Throughout our work we emphasise girls’ education – i.e. supporting construction of boarding schools, employment of more female teachers, a more conducive school environment etc.

Partners:

• Kibera Slums Education programme (Kisep) targeting poor children in the Kibera slum of Nairobi
• Pendekezo Letu (meaning Our Choice) Centre at Thika, targeting street girls from Nairobi and neighbouring rural towns in central Kenya
• Wema Centre in Kilifi, targeting street children from Mombasa.
  

Last updated: Jan 06