A catastrophic drought has turned the county into a graveyard for livestock and hope, forcing thousands to abandon their homes in a desperate search for the most basic human necessity.

In Marsabit County, the earth is no longer brown; it is a pale, lifeless grey. A four-year water crisis has escalated into a full-blown humanitarian catastrophe, pushing the resilience of the pastoralist communities to its breaking point. Locals are calling it "water bankruptcy," a situation where the land has absolutely nothing left to give. Families that have lived on these plains for generations are now packing their meagre belongings and leaving, initiating a climate-induced exodus that threatens to depopulate the region.

The 14-Kilometre Walk of Pain

The face of this crisis is Amina Guyo, a mother who wakes up before dawn not to pray, but to walk. Her journey to the nearest water point is a gruelling 14 kilometres. She is not alone. Thousands of women and children perform this daily ritual, their bodies bent under the weight of yellow jerrycans, their feet blistered by the scorching sand. "We choose between water and food," Amina says, her voice cracking. "Some days we drink, but we sleep hungry."

The infrastructure that should save them has collapsed. Boreholes drilled by the county government and aid agencies are drying up one by one. Generators meant to pump water from the deep aquifers sit silent, their fuel tanks empty due to lack of funds or logistical failures. The silence of the pumps is the loudest sound in the desert.

• Livestock Decimation: The economy of Marsabit is built on cattle, and that economy is dead. Carcasses litter the roadsides, a grim testament to the severity of the drought.
• School Dropouts: Children like Halima Diba have abandoned the classroom for the water queue. Education has become a luxury they cannot afford when survival is at stake.
• Resource Conflict: As water points dwindle, tensions rise. Communities are clashing over the few remaining operational wells, adding the threat of violence to the agony of thirst.

A Cry in the Wilderness

The local leadership appears overwhelmed. While emergency water trucking is happening, it is a drop in the ocean of need. The residents of Marsabit feel abandoned by Nairobi, viewed as a distant problem on the map rather than fellow citizens in peril. The exodus is not just a migration; it is a protest against neglect.

Unless the skies open or the government intervenes with massive, sustainable infrastructure projects, Marsabit risks becoming a wasteland. For now, the people walk. They walk away from their homes, away from their history, walking simply to stay alive.