In many ways, the ills of North Eastern Province are typical of problems that confront drylands elsewhere, not least concerning the lack of roads and other types of infrastructure - and inadequate services, such as those relating to health and education.
A 2004 report by the East African office of the Society for International Development (SID), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) headquartered in Rome, notes that there is one doctor for every 120,000 people in the North Eastern Province, compared to one per 20,000 in the Central Province. (The document is titled 'Pulling Apart: Striking Facts and Figures on Inequality in Kenya'.)
According to the most recent census, conducted in 1999, the North Eastern Province is home to over 960,000 people.
The SID study also says that just one in three children in the North Eastern Province attends primary school, even while there is universal primary school attendance in the Central Province.
Observes UNEP, "People living in drylands, 90 percent of whom live in developing countries, lag far behind the rest of the world in human well-being and development indicators."
"Drylands remain impoverished because poor people living in drylands, especially women, seldom have a strong political voice and often lack essential services, such as health care, agricultural extension and education..." the agency adds.
Livestock production is the primary source of livelihood in the NEP: statistics from the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) indicate that over 90 percent of household income is derived from livestock.
However, food and water for cattle and other animals are limited. This has sparked ongoing conflict over resources among pastoralist communities in the area, where clashes force people to flee their homes. Last July, about 90 people were killed during inter-clan violence in Marsabit.
The large numbers of livestock have also had a negative effect on the environment, already degraded.
"There is a need to ensure awareness on the ground about the importance of keeping...animals that can be sustained by the ecosystem," says Betty Nzioka, acting director of the Environmental Information and Public Participation department at NEMA.
"There is a need to have these people keep quality animals, not just be concerned about numbers."
UNEP claims that, globally, up to 20 percent of drylands are degraded, with this problem at its worst in developing nations.
Wambugu Wamahiu of the Greenbelt Movement, an environmental NGO based in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, believes awareness of this problem can be raised through education campaigns that take dryland inhabitants "out of their old thinking that livestock numbers tell it all."
"They should know that by having too many livestock, they are not doing themselves any good. These animals have been running all over the place and destroying the little vegetation left, loosening the soil such that when it rains, all the soil is eroded," he adds.
As sound as the reasoning of Wamahiu and others might be, however, it has yet to convince some in the North Eastern Province that reducing livestock numbers is at the top of the agenda for improving their lives.
"The government must first and foremost provide water in order to ensure our well being. Women have to walk miles and miles just to get water," Hubbie Hussein Al-Haji of Womankind Kenya, a development organisation in the area, told IPS.
Authorities claim that initiatives to increase water points are already underway.
"The government has drilled 200 boreholes this year and constructed 300 dams and pans for water supply and storage. The government is also revitalising irrigation and drainage development in various parts of the country," President Mwai Kibaki said in a public address, Jun. 1.
But residents of dry areas - the NEP included - who took part in an interactive live broadcast by a local television station on the same day seemed unaware of such projects - or other official development initiatives.
Several years of drought in the north and east have also made difficult living conditions worse, causing large numbers of people to become dependent on food aid. The United Nations World Food Programme has called for funds to feed up to 3.5 million people until February next year.
If day-to-day human needs and activities act to the detriment of drylands, extraordinary pressures can prove devastating. Take the case of the Ifo, Dagahaley and Hagadera refugee camps that were established around the town of Dadaab in North Eastern Province (and which are also referred to as the Dadaab camps).
The camps have a population of about 130,000 - mostly Somalis who fled violence in their country - and have been in existence for approximately 15 years.
"All these people have to depend on (wood for) fuel...They have harvested the indigenous trees to get fuel for use in the camps. This has completely damaged the ecosystem of the whole place," says Nzioka.
A study by NEMA shows that poverty has also pushed Kenyan locals into unsustainable use of the area's trees, which are used to produce charcoal or firewood for sale.
About 30 percent of Kenya's population occupies drylands, which make up close to 90 percent of the East African country's land, according to NEMA.
Kenya has adopted "Drylands Our Livelihood, Let's Save Them" as the national slogan for this year's World Environment Day. Globally, the slogan "Don't Desert Drylands" is being used.
According to the World Environment Day website, more than two billion people (one third of the global population) live in drylands, which account for 41 per cent of all land area.
Events on Jun. 5 form part of a broader effort to raise awareness of the fragility of dry regions: the United Nations General Assembly has also declared 2006 the 'International Year of Deserts and Desertification'.
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