Karianduri Primary School

This afternoon we visited Karianduri Primary School that is situated on a slope overlooking Lake Elementatia in the Rift Valley. On the drive there we saw one of several hundred refugee camps set up by the Red Cross to house families forced from their homes during the post-election violence in December 2007. Anam Echakari, head teacher at Karianduri later told us that up to 30,000 people are still stuck in these camps, surviving off rations from the Red Cross. There are regular outbreaks of diseases such as Cholerea and conditions such a Pneumonia during rainy periods. Fortunately for the inhabitants of these camps the ‘long rains’ which usually fall in Kenya between Marc h and June have failed to arrive in the intensity that is usually expected. This, however, is unfortunate for the region as a whole as was exemplified by what we learned and saw at Karianduri.

Karianduri is a rural primary school, children walk up to 7km to attend, in total there are around 500 people in the school, crammed into classes which vary in size between 30 and 70 pupils, many sitting tightly together at small desks. Karianduri, is fortunate to be led by a forward thinking Head teacher. Anam Echakari is a tall young man in his thirties, he dresses very smartly and carries a great deal authority in his school and in a positive and caring way. Following training at Elsamere and his own awareness of the acute environmental problems of drought, desertification and deforestation that effect this region, Anam has made it his mission to promote environmental conservation, not only in the school but in the entire community. The failings of the long rains are of great concern here; dust is continuously thrown up from the land by vehicles, animals, humans and small gusts of wind. Anam told me how difficult it is for people to grow crops here and graze animals, hampered not only by the lack of water, but also by the more serious impacts of soil loss.

The environmental education delivered by Anam is very much in the category of mitigation. The children here need to learn how to cope with the impacts of climate change, it is directly effecting them today and will only worsen as the impacts of global warming continue to reek havoc on fragile impacts such as those found here in the rift valley.

Aman has begun a project of tree planting on the land belonging to the school, he plans to grow a ‘forest’ of around 20 yellow barked acacia trees for each class in the school. The Yellow barked Acacia is native to the region and will help bind the soil together on the slopes surrounding the school and slow down rainwater run-off. Aman continuously reinforces the need to do this amongst his pupils encouraging them to grow trees on the lands surrounding their home. Listening to the pupils, it seems that the message is sinking in. Cliff, our host at Elsamere, promises to bring the pupils from this school to Elsamere to further their environmental awareness, it can only be a good thing!

In the UK the impacts of climate change seem a long way off, either into the future or in some far off land. Standing in this school, seeing the efforts being made to preserve life here by a committed and passionate teaching staff, brings both emotions of hope and despair. As I walked away I was fighting back the tears as the realisation that the future of this dramatic and beautiful place is not really in the hands of those who inhabit it. Climate Change will force them away from here, taking with them the wildlife, the lakes, the traditions, the languages and eventually the memories. They will do their best to cope and survive here for as long as possible, as will the rest of Kenya, but the sadness, for me lay in the knowledge that their fate has been pre determined by centuries of Western industrialisation.