David John Bwakali

In 2003, as Darfur was burning, it wasn’t the West or the UN that stepped up. The African Union (AU) did. With the world watching from the sidelines, the Janjaweed militia, armed and emboldened by Sudan’s government, unleashed terror across the region. Villages were razed, families torn apart, and the word ‘genocide’ was whispered in the halls of power. But while the international community hesitated, the African Union didn’t.

Franklin Mueke moved briskly from truck to truck, chatting with the drivers. They had parked nearly eighty trucks on River Muooni’s sandy riverbank. As one of the few local sand brokers, Mueke was the bridge between sand loaders and truck drivers. Part of his work was to ensure each truck had sufficient loaders. On this particular, day in early 2015, he noted with satisfaction that the sand loading was progressing speedily.

For three years in a row, Margaret Mwake’s roughly one-acre farm has not given her any meaningful yield. Even as rain has pounded other parts of Kenya in the last few months, it has barely drizzled in Rukanga, Kasigau Ward, where Margaret hails from. Consequently, her locality has been hit by a drought that can easily degenerate into famine.