Life in the Swamp: Bunyala District - Further South of the River Nzoia

Due to the shortage of staff at my host organization, my plans to tour the entire district to assess the various needs of the community had been tabled for the time being. We are still in the process of seeking applicants for a new position. But in the meantime, my friend Lawrence has generously offered to accompany me until he leaves to work on the biometric voter registration process in another district ahead of the upcoming elections in March.

Our first stop together, where Austin and I had left off, was to visit the villages of Rukala, Runyu, and Nandehe Beach on Monday. Reaching the village of Rukala requires crossing the River Nzoia by ferry boat, then crossing a small bridge over the Ndekwe River and the Yala Swamp.

Up until this point, I had visited many villages who battle the forces of nature on a regular basis, whether it be the threat of annual flooding, the inability to construct necessities like 'vyoo' (latrines) due to a high water table and weak soil, or inadequate drinking water. But visiting these areas, spending time with the villagers, I could see possible rationalizations for choosing to settle here. These areas felt comfortable, accomodating. They felt like any other simple, rural community, and with an inviting coastal breeze. Land is generally more fertile than those found upland.

But Rukala and Runyu were the first places I've been to on these trips which I just could not find any redeeming qualities. These villages are basically situated on low-lying islands, just a little higher than the surrounding Yala Swamp. But the more fitting way to describe them is that these villagers live in the swamp, not near it. The narrow strips of 'higher ground' which people have settled on are directly adjacent to the swamp lands, with no real buffer zone. This results in an unimaginable convergence of all kinds of problems.

People have lived here for a long time despite the problems. It is their ancestral land. Why their ancestors chose such a difficult place to settle, God only knows. Maybe it was the fertile farmland, when flood waters from the swamp don't threaten to destroy them. But one thing is for sure, resettling these people would be a difficult task, given their lack of sustainable sources of income to purchase land elsewhere, as well as people's hesitance to leave the land of their ancestors.

During most of my community visits, the nationwide teacher’s strike had meant that schools were closed. But with their opening, I have been able to begin visiting schools to speak with their administration.

Pictured above is Budala Primary School in the village of Rukala. Their only source of water is an open shallow well, and they currently have no means of water treatment. Also, there is a major shortage of ‘vyoo’ (latrines), especially considering that most are full anyways due to the high water table. Because of its location by the swamp, mosquitos are a major problem, and the sandy soils harbor jiggers, a nasty insect which infest the children’s feet. The jigger infestation is difficult to control, even more difficult to eradicate, as it spreads rapidly. But most of the schools in the district seem to have health clubs, which provide an avenue for working with them in the future.

This ‘mama’ in Rukala complained the biggest problem is floods, which ruin their food. Floods reached here as recently as last April, and flood waters can reach up to five-feet high within her home, although most of the families we spoke with in this area complained moreso of damage to their fields. Floods don’t seem to generally reach most of the homes as occurs in other parts of the district. The swamp may have additional storage capacity to mitigate the effects.

People in the area fish, farm, basket-weave, and sell goods at market for income.

Lawrence crossing the ragged wooden footbridge, through the Yala Swamp, from Rukala into the village of Runyu. This footbridge was built approximately 10 years ago, and provides the only dry means of access into the village. People had previously had to either use a boat, or more often, wade through the waters of the swamp, in order to access the village.

Even with the footbridge, it has been near impossible to transport materials for construction, complained the deputy headmaster of Runyu Primary School. Vehicles are unable to pass along the footbridge.

Runyu and Rukala are both situated along small islands within the swamp. It is more appropriate to say that the villages are actually in the swamp, as opposed to near it.

This is the walk to school that many children, who live in nearby Nandehe, face each morning when headed to Runyu Primary School. This is the only means of access between the two villages, and requires wading through water for a distance of about one kilometer, with water reaching depths of up to two feet. This makes the young children very susceptible to a range of disease.

Due to the walk, we chose to shelf our trip to Nandehe Beach, instead stopping off their on our way to Bulwani on our next trip. To access Bulwani requires taking a boat past Nandehe, anyways.

For the school, their campus features the only borehole pump in the area for drinking water, but that doesn’t mean the water is clean. It is actually brown in color, contaminated from the swamp and inadequate sanitation in the area. Like in Rukala, the schools ‘vyoo’ are inadequate for the number of students they serve, and are full due to the high water table, only 2.5 feet in depth.

One thing that is interesting about some of the schools in the southern part of the district: this year, the ministry of agriculture is beginning a program of providing children with school lunches. In this first year, it is fully funded by the ministry. But each subsequent year will see the funding reduced until it is nonexistent. What is taking the place of funding? The ‘4K Club’ has been started with children at each of these schools, with the express purpose of farming nearby land in order to obtain produce for their lunch.

The houses in these communities are densely clustered in small areas of ‘higher’ ground within the swamp. While the homes themselves aren’t any different than those encountered elsewhere in the village, the challenges to life are much more severe.

Most families we spoke with drink the swamp water, although they understand that this water is dirty and try to treat it by boiling or chemical treatment. But as one family said, thirst can often drive them to drink the water without treatment. Simply digging a drinking water well isn’t even practical due to the high water table and tendency to collapse.

Mosquitos are naturally rampant in the swamp, causing an increased incidence of malaria. Other water-borne diseases, such as cholera, typhoid, amoebic dysentery, and schistosomiasis are also common.

Farming is also made difficult, not only due to the constant threat of flooding, but also due to some type of small, wild pig that apparently thrives in the swamp and destroy crops.

Lawrence (right) listens to two men we spoke with at this home in Runyu. The ‘mzee’ (old man) on the left was weaving baskets when we arrived with the reeds by his feet.

This family actually has a ‘choo’ (latrine). We took a look at it. It was only dug a month ago, and is already completely full. Because of this issue, most people don’t even bother to construct a latrine, and instead relieve themselves within the swamp. Since most people in this area have no other option than to drink the swamp water directly, they therefore directly contaminate the water they themselves drink.

Another picture of housing in Runyu, situated within the Yala Swamp.