Background | Introduction | Area and the People | Population | Physical Features | Economic Activities | District Poverty | Education

PROFILE -Tana River District

Background
Tana River is the largest river in Kenya, stretching over a total length of 1,000km. It originates from Mt. Kenya and Aberdares in central Kenya, with a catchments area about 95,000 km2 which is approximately 17% of Kenya’s landmass. The river flows for most of its course across semi-arid and arid regions, while meandering through an alluvial floodplain of varying width from 2 km in the middle river reaches to 42 km in the lower delta areas. The River forms the Tana Delta, which is the largest deltaic ecosystem in Kenya, stretching over 180,000 km2 before entering in to the Indian Ocean through Kipini.

Different communities including farmers, fishermen, pastoralists and semi-pastoralists utilize the river floodplain for their livelihoods. Human population densities are highest in the highlands region (river catchments area) but the trend in human population density decreases downwards in moving from the upper region to the middle areas. Towards the lower river region, the human population density increases in moving towards the Indian Ocean. Tana river is an important life sustenance system that provides resources and services used to meet local people’s livelihoods. The indigenous communities of the river basin have practiced traditional land use activities like small-scale agriculture, fishing and livestock keeping as well as harvesting of wetland resources and products for thousands of years without major impacts on the environment. These traditional methods of natural resources utilization have always been maintained at sustainable levels using traditional governance and regulatory mechanisms, thereby contributing to their conservation and wise use.

The Tana river basin is characterized by high diversity of habitat types including reverine forests, grasslands, woodlands, bush lands, lakes, open river channels, sand dunes, mangroves and coastal waters among others. This high diversity of habitat types is associated with correspondingly high biological diversity (biodiversity) of both flora and fauna. The Tana basin sustains large numbers of mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, amphibians, insects and galleries of riverine forests. The river floodplains and their associated mosaics of riverine forest patches is particularly important as a habitat for threatened and endangered species like the Tana River Red Columbus, Tana River Crested Mangabey, elephant, fish and plants. The riverine wetlands are also important ecosystem that acts as a staging, resting, nesting and feeding ground for resident and migratory water birds.

Introduction | Top
The Tana River District was curved out in 2007 from the mega district that used to enjoin it to the Tana Delta District. The district has retained with the former District headquarter but without the delta that is a common use area for the communities inhabiting the area. However, the new Tana River District has remained with important natural resources and high biodiversity hotspots that can be used for socio-economic development of the residents. Of great importance are wildlife areas of conservation concern including the Kora, Arawale and the Tana Primate National Reserves. These areas are of international conservation importance due to the unique biological diversity they habour including the hunter’s heartbeast (Hirola), Tana River Red Colobus monkey and the Tana River Crested Mangabey among others.

Apart from important wildlife species, the river floodplain is decorated my a mosaic of gallery riverine forest interspersed by farmlands as it flows south to the delta and the Indian Ocean. The riverine communities of Tana river have lived with the river and its resources from time immemorial without any obvious negative impacts but the advent of large scale agriculture and arrival of pastoral communities changed the environmental balance. The river floodplain is also endowed with ox-bow lakes due to historical river meander cut-offs associated with the Tana River. Within the river and lake waters are found several organisms including fish and crocodiles. The riverine fisheries has been a source of protein for the inhabitant communities throughout history. The community culture has evolved around the natural resources of the river to the extent that there are traditional rules and regulations for the management of the resources with clear and elaborate enforcement mechanisms.

However, due to the lack of deliberate development initiatives targeting the community and their traditional natural resources, the inhabitants have suffered high poverty levels since the country’s independence. Deliberate damming of the river in the upstream part has brought about elevated poverty to the downstream communities of the Tana who traditionally depended of the river flooding regimes for their agricultural practices. Due to changed river flooding patterns, the community has never been able to sustain itself in food production, leading to a breakdown of the traditional food security mechanisms thereby rendering the entire community vulnerable to all poverty factors. Continued destruction of the catchments forests on Mt. Kenya and the Aberdares have further complicated the situation downstream. Development attempts in the area have focused more on large scale agriculture despite all irrigation schemes failing along the entire river basin. There has been no attempt to empower the community to sustainable manage natural resources for their socio-economic development. It is upon this background that this project was conceived to address this development need that has the potential to improve the living standards of the local community while alleviating poverty.

Area and the People | Top
Tana River District is one of the eight districts that constitute the Coast Province. The District borders Kitui District to the West, Mwingi District to the North-west, Garissa District to the East, Tharaka and Isiolo District to the North, Lamu District to the South, and Kilifi District and the Indian Ocean to the Southwest, and Taveta to the west. The district lies between latitude 00 (Equator) and 30 South, and longitude 380 300 East and 400 150 East.

Population Size | Top
Tana River is one of the least populated districts in Kenya with a total population of about 250,000 mostly concentrated along the river and the small urban centers. The population in Tana River District is not static; there is great infiltration of outsiders especially the nomads from the neighboring districts are settling in the district in search for pasture and water for their livestock.

Physical Features | Top
Over 90% of the total area in Tana River District is arid and semi-arid land. The major physical feature is undulating plain which is interrupted in a few places by low hills.
The most important feature is the river Tana delta that transverses the district from Tharaka District in the North to the Indian Ocean in the south. As the river transverses the expansive coastal hinter land, it meanders in its lower course forming a large basin whose width ranges between two and forty-two kilometers.

Economic Activities | Top
The main economic activities of the district are small-scale subsistence agriculture along Tana River, nomadic livestock activities in the rangeland and fishing along the river and coastal strip. There were two major irrigation schemes i.e. Bura and Hola but they collapsed in early 1980’s though construction work to revive them has started.

District Poverty | Top
Tana River District is ranked 40 of the 45 poorest districts in Kenya. 72% of the total population lives below the poverty line according to the 1997 poverty survey. More than three-quarters of the district population are unable to afford the minimum human basic needs and services including food, clothing, shelter, education, health services, water and sanitation. The 72% of the population rated as absolute poor translates to about 108,000 people of a possible population, out of which 36.3% are females and men contribute to 36.0%.

The major causes of poverty in the district is due to poor governance in the country. There is inequality in distribution of resources that has resulted to development in other district in expense of the other. This has been compounded by poor political will and corruption.

Women and children are the most affected. The high illiteracy rate is a major contributor to the poverty situation in the district. Others are women not participating in decision-making, incidents of diseases like malaria, typhoid and HIV/AIDS, and the lack of credit facilities. Bangale Division has the highest poverty level followed by Madogo, Bura, Wenje and Galole.

Education | Top
Tana River district is one of the districts where pupils perform poorly in the national examination in the country. The schools are poorly equipped with inadequate teaching staffs. Some of the outdated cultures still exists in some communities. This has more negative effects to the girl child, these includes female circumcision, belief that when girls are educated they become prostitutes, forced marriage at a tender age and  doubling school work and house chores.