Water Problems of Kitui District, Kenya

Abstract

KITUI DISTRICT KITUI DISTRICT in Kenya Colony \EAST AFRICA , has many problems, but of paramount '-i -' -/7-' importance, and related to most of the Xk v' (~ others, are those concerned with water. /UGANDA/ o_ K E N Y A I _ Water is the principal determinant of :'ir-: irobi.,:^uI land use. Its yearly presence or absence {~~( 'i W9 w ^means prosperity or possible starvation. Mo.ba>a< Kitui District occupies an area of TAN G A N Y IKA iNDIAN I8,ooo square miles, of which 6000 is ~\^\t~ (^WZANZIBAR :N i: Native Reserve. It lies, for the most part, -~~8^OCEAN -s-^ I -. -8~at elevations of 2000 to 4000 feet 0/ 100000: between the coastal plain and the high,oo 200 .... 20 idoGl :7,O' M JO :KM: lands to the west. Hills of gneiss and 02:8 , 36 GEOGR'REV1EW,0oct.,10o schist rise above a dry, rolling, eastwardFIG. i-Location map. sloping plain of red lateritic soils covered with thornbush except where scattered native shambas dot the countryside. There are no permanent streams; in wet periods the district is drained by sand rivers (Fig. 7), the largest of which, the Tiva and the Thua, may barely reach the Tana River but usually end in the bush. A population of 214,000, including fewer than Iooo non-Africans, is concentrated in the southwest around Kitui Township, where the land is higher, hillier, and wetter. The inhabitants, the Akamba, are of eastern Bantu stock and in the past were one of the more backward tribes of Kenya-and the indigenous tribes of that colony were among the least advanced in Africa. The Akamba are agriculturists, but they also keep large herds of cattle and goats; on the Yatta Plateau, however, and around the confluence of the Kithioluo and Tana