Deep in the dry lands of the North Rift, a man is rewriting his heritage by reclaiming an ancestral land from big rocky boulders into an arable land capable of feeding his village.
Wilson Mutai Cheruiyot of Tinomoi Sub Location in Marigat Sub County, Baringo, has worked hard under the scorching sun to turn around the arid nametag associated with his birth place into an oasis of livelihood.
Looking at his straight posture, you will be forgiven to mistake the 62-year-old father of six for a man in his early fifties. Apparently, his persistent work on his hilly rocky land for over thirty years has been his physical exercise that kept on rejuvenating his health to keep him looking young.
The impact of his resolve has been felt beyond his homestead as he has transformed the village by meeting their nutrition needs through the vegetables and fruits he produces on his reclaimed 3-acre land.
Mutai’s call caught up with him in 1992 albeit through a misfortune. “My parents left this land in 1962 running away from ravaging drought that was a constant plague in the area coupled up with land that was not arable due to rock boulders,” he says.
The family relocated to Lari, Nakuru County where he grew up and started a chain of retail shop business. It was all rosy until the ugly face of tribal politics swallowed his livelihood.
“My house and all the three shops I owned were torched, I had no choice but to retrace my roots to my ancestral land and start afresh,” says Mutai.
To his surprise Mutai found a small spring on the land where only half an acre was arable and suitable to grow groundnuts. He says he saw an opportunity as the spring was a source of hope that he could turn around his fortunes and reap from the neglected land through irrigation.
Mutai embarked on reclaiming the land by manually digging up the rock to access soil. He started purchasing pipes and personally laying them to an intricate web of water supply in the land without any help from plumbers or water engineers.
Mixing conservation and land reclaiming, Mutai now boasts of 3 acres of arable land filled with a variety of vegetables and fruits which he sells to area residents and beyond.
“Through this I have been able to educate all my children, the last born is joining university this year,” said Mutai beaming at his success.
He urges Kenyans to emulate him and help realize food security in the country.
Mutai says he went on to donate the area where the source of water lies to the community and calls on the county and national government to put up a tank that will encourage more villagers to practice irrigation farming as well as supply the households with water for their domestic use.
When KNA toured his flourishing farm, he recalled rising up every day at around 6:30 am to manually remove the rocks in the farm till evening and it led to shoulder injuries during the first days before adopting the daily routine which has now helped expand the farm.
“I saw the task as impossible but I gained courage which enabled me to accomplish the work I was doing non-stop,” says Mutai.
He notes that he is lucky to have a well conserved natural swamp near the farm which he has built an improvised intake structure to supply water throughout the farm.
Besides the fruits trees he planted near the catchment, the farmer also has a tree nursery bed to boost his income and support agroforestry within the arid area, he has changed the ambience with over 1000 trees he has planted in the entire farm.
Mutai says since then life has not been the same again because his family has never lacked food and the entire community is dependent on his farm.
The community-focused cultivator is now encouraging residents particularly the youth to embrace hands-on farming to create wealth instead of relying on white-collar jobs which are currently difficult to secure.
“Singapore is with us and not in Nairobi, neither is it in Nakuru nor Eldoret. It is in the citizens who can stretch their hands and by doing so also help the President achieve the dream,” Mutai explains.
He said he is determined to succeed at all costs in his quest to further improve the farm from subsistence to commercialized and profitable venture.
However, Mutai acknowledges that he is still facing challenges like need to level the land since he is aging and may not have the energy to use the traditional method across the entire farm.
He pointed out that the availability of agricultural extension services in the area will go a long way in supplementing his limited knowledge.
At the same time, Mutai insisted that like some of his neighbours, he will need to reinforce the fence around the farm to ward off uncontrolled movement of livestock who pose threat to his crops because over the years he has sometimes been forced to station his children to guard the crops on a daily basis.
The passionate farmer says his desire is to see everyone in the community prosper rather than just achieving individual success.
Peter Ole Ngirnas, a neighbor and friend says that Mutai has become a role model to the community who are now emulating him in their respective farms.
Ole Ngirnas says through the regular visits to Mutai’s farm, he has set aside a portion of his land specifically for fruits and embraced livestock keeping which has greatly improved his livelihood.
He calls upon the county government to actively prioritize the establishment of value addition factories to boost agricultural and livestock sectors within the area in order to support them in their lucrative venture.
By Benson Kelio and Christopher Kiprop
