Background

Garissa County is one of the 47 counties in Kenya. The County has eleven sub-counties namely: Garissa Township, Ijara, Lagdera, Balambala, Bura East, Fafi, Hulugho, Bothai, Liboi, Shanta Abaq and Dadaab. However, two other Sub Counties have been Gazzetted but not operationalized (Sankuri and Benane). The County Headquarter is at Garissa Town. The County is generally characterized by high temperatures throughout the year. The county is a member of Frontier Counties Development Council (FCDC) block which have been established through mutual understanding between the various counties with historical, political and economic similarities. Garissa County is cosmopolitan with ethnic Somalis. The County also hosts hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees in its five refugees camp namely ifo, Ifo 2, dagahaley, Kambios and hagadera camps.

The backbone of the county’s economy is livestock production with over 90 percent of the inhabitants directly or indirectly deriving their livelihood from livestock. Nomadic Pastoralist is the more prominent in the county and defines the lifestyle of most of the county’s inhabitants. The main livestock breeds are Cattle (boran), Goats (Galla), sheep (black headed Persian) and Camel (dromedary one humped). The main livestock products are meat, milk, hides and skins. On Agriculture the counties practice rain-fed agriculture on a small scale and Irrigation on a large scale along the riverine. The main crops grown are watermelons, mangoes, vegetables, tomatoes, paw paws, bananas, cowpeas, sim-sim, maize, beans and green grams for subsistence production