Maisha Ndani ya Swamp Kabisa (Life in the Interior of the Swamp)

Yesterday, Edwin and I finished our trips to the most remote reaches of the Yala Swamp, traveling to the villages of Madua and Buhuma.

My counterpart Edwin and I took a boat through the swamp from Madua to Buhuma. George, a native of Buhuma, propels the boat forward using a bamboo rod.

Every time I head out into the swamp, I feel like I'm in some Dr. Seuss fantasy world, surrounded by crazy papyrus plants topped with green needles in the shape of balls.

In my last post, I covered the villages of Bubamba and Iyanga. Those villages were the most physically-taxing villages to get to, requiring long treks on foot, often wading through waist-deep water, in addition to pulling boats by rope permanently positioned in particularly long and deep stretches of water, and taking a boat across the Yala/Bulwani River propelled by bamboo rods.

We later visited the village of Buongo, which although being within the swamp, does not entail anywhere near the effort to access it. There, planks of wood and felled wetlands plants are used to bridge standing water within the swamp along a trail leading to the main road south of the River Nzoia..

Yesterday, we visited the villages of Madua and Buhuma. Buhuma is probably the most remote of all of the villages in the district. Inhabitants of Madua and Buhuma must enter Lake Victoria in order to reach any other village. And the distance required to reach Buhuma by boat is significant.

Below is our trip to Madua and Buhuma in pictures:

The villages of Madua and Buhuma are isolated from all other villages. In order to access them, one has to enter through Lake Victoria. We took a ferry boat from Mabinju Beach, along the Ndekwe River, into the lake to the town of Osieko, the extreme southern point of Bunyala District. The boat, naturally, had engine problems, and we found ourselves running well behind schedule due to frequent stalling.

From Osieko, we hired a boat owned by Madua Primary School. We entered into the swamp from the lake through a small waterway at Nahairira Beach. From there, the journey through the swamp to Madua only took about five minutes in our motor boat. After passing a landing spot for the village, we came upon Madua Primary School. The school is accessed solely by boat, being on a small island within the swamp. We decided to continue onto Buhuma, saving our visit to the school for the return trip.

The waterway we followed into Madua abruptly ends at the school, requiring us to leave our boat behind. We made a brief trek on foot through an abandoned dispensary and a couple households before arriving at another boat landing.

The most difficult part of the journey then begins, requiring an approximately one-hour long ride by boat through the swamp. Because this waterway is completely isolated from all others, the villagers all use only one boat, which permanently stays in this channel. You have to hope that this boat is not on the other side when you need it. If it is, you must wait until someone comes from that end, which may very well be the following day.

For most of the distance, the waterway is barely wide enough to allow the boat to pass due to the encroaching vegetation, and its constant meandering makes maneuvering the boat particularly difficult. Therefore, the boat is powered only by using bamboo rods to push the boat forward using leverage from the ground and edges of vegetation.

The locals told us that this pathway used to be completely dry, fully accessible by foot. About twenty years ago, floods began to arrive approximately twice a year, rendering the path temporarily inaccessible. But for the past six years or so, the swamp has completely encroached to the point where the path is now permanently submerged in water. They attribute this to the start of large-scale farming in nearby Bondo district by Dominion, an American businessman.

The village of Buhuma is situated on an island, around a small hill of large stones.

Climbing this hill provides a good view of the entirety of the Yala Swamp. From here, it is easy to see why this village is so marginalized. In all directions, you find miles and miles of swampland.

Because of the isolation, the children of Buhuma face many challenges in accessing education.  Children generally attend primary school in Madua, and secondary school in Osieko. They are required to board at these schools due to the impossibility of commuting daily. But boarding away from family can be a difficult proposition for the smallest children, where they must cook and look after themselves.

In order to better equip their children, the community built this early childhood development center with limited assistance to facilitate the education of kids prior to primary school. The teacher is supported by small fees paid by parents.

Edwin and I held a meeting with the community, during which we introduced ourselves, spoke about our work, and asked them to describe the biggest challenges their community faces. I also gave a brief talk on the importance of hand-washing and water treatment, while Edwin, currently volunteering as a voter education officer, spoke on matters of interest regarding the upcoming election.

Naturally, the issue of transportation is the most pressing issue. They want a second boat, as well as widening of the channel, to facilitate transport. Mosquitos are horrible in this area as well. Even in the heat of the day, around noon, I found myself swatting blood-filled mosquitos against my skin. Food security is an issue due to frequent flood events, which can happen up to four times a year wiping out crops. Their only water source is the swamp water, and no one treats their water.

A couple households within the village of Madua near the primary school.

These students are from Buhuma, simply getting a free ride back to school. They board at a nearby building, formally the Madua dispensary/health facility before it closed soon after opening. The baskets, pictured above, are being taken to Osieko to be sold at market. Basket-weaving is a traditional trade practiced by the local population within the swamp.

We stopped into the school to speak briefly with the head teacher, who then asked me to speak briefly with his exam candidates of Class 8. The boat then took us back out to sea, to Nandehe Beach, from where we walked and waded through water to get back to where I left my bike. It was another long journey, and I didn't get back home until dark.

The challenges faced by these communities are extreme, and the way forward complicated. Due to these challenges, approximately 70 of the estimated 170 people which belong to Buhuma now already live outside in other villages within the district. This begs the question, is investing in such a community worthwhile, or is the long-term solution simply relocation? The problem is many of these people consider these lands their ancestral land, and if currently given the choice, would never leave. But given the major exodus of people from the community even now, these attitudes might finally be changing.

These people are beyond a doubt marginalized by their government. The services which most other villages enjoy are nonexistent. But it is also obvious that any assistance to Buhuma would cost, per capita, more than really any other community in the region. So where should the government draw the line? What should be their role?

Another major problem in this area, and in Kenya in particular, is the dependancy syndrome. In my opinion, this is a damning legacy of years of one-sided intervention by foreign-based NGOs, who give out aid as opposed to working with community members to teach them how to better improve their lives themselves.

I was disappointed to hear both from community members, as well as teachers at the primary school, words like 'donor', 'sponsor', 'samaritan', often before I even got a chance to introduce myself.

Following our community meeting in Buhuma, I was approached by several people for money. One 'mzee' (elder man) said he should receive 'kitu kidogo' (something small) for having mobilized the people. Others asked for money just on account of sitting with us. We had already paid a good amount of money for the boat ride out, but a young man again asked for more money in addition to this.

Even after giving my brief motivational speech to the Class 8 students, the young boy who was called upon to stand and thank us for coming, standard procedure when schools host visitors, instead launched into an appeal for books and lighting. He said 'even our teachers, they must copy from the books of teachers from other schools.' His speech seemed to be coached, talking about the needs of the teachers as much as the students.

There are unquestioned hardships, and perhaps such assistance could go a long way in improving their lives. But I don't like that getting handouts is their primary focus. It precludes being proactive and trying to make steps to better their lives themselves. The attitude that these students should hold is to make the most of the resources they have to learn as much as they can to improve themselves. This culture of begging to any guest encourages the mindset that if not for the help of someone from outside, they cannot achieve anything.

In terms of the biggest challenge, access, this seems to me to be a job for the Kenyan government. The major solution bantered about by the community is to obtain funds to cut back vegetation in an effort to make travel by boat easier. A foreign-based NGO or 'sponsor' can come in and provide that, but to me, it is just kicking the can down the road. The NGO will inevitably pull out, and the vegetation will grow back. For such recurring costs, it is up to the local community, which includes the government, to find sustainable options, since they are the ones that can never pull out.

Especially given the dependency issue, I feel that the best thing that can be done for these villagers is to empower them to take action themselves to improve their lives. We talked of income-generating activities and sustainable school lunch programs, as well as establishing local committees such as for water and sanitation. But this now involves behavior change, which always takes a painstaking amount of time to establish. I have a very limited amount of time here. We have made a thorough survey of the district. Now it is time for us to sit down and think about which projects we, and my host organization in general, would like to embark upon in the coming months.