With training from the World Food Programme, one entrepreneur overcame stigma - and climate shocks - to become a community leader
James Esinyen's father sent him to a care home at the age of 2. The disability James was born with - the use of only one of his legs - was considered a "curse".
He returned to his family ten years later but his father's views hadn't changed. "He chased me away and I found refuge in a nearby school," the young farmer recalls. Esinyen lives in the village of Kakwanyang, in Turkana County, Kenya. Here, severe drought is prompting pastoralists, whose livelihoods depend on livestock, to switch to growing crops.
"I struggled with school fees but managed to attend form one and two through casual jobs and savings before I ran out of money and had to drop out," explains Esinyen.
Thankfully, through a village savings-and-loans association, he had saved enough to buy a second-hand motorcycle. He hired a rider to run errands for people and act as a taxi service - but unfortunately that person "didn't pay me [my share] as agreed," he recalls. Undeterred, he learned to ride so that he could take advantage of cash jobs.
Despite his independence, Esinyen still faced "criticism from peers for my disability and not finishing school."
In 2021, he started a "small kitchen garden" using water piped from a borehole to his home. In time, he started to sell surplus kale to the community. Then he stumbled upon the World Food Programme (WFP). "The WFP team motivated me and shared farming advice. WFP helped us prepare land by providing fencing, piping and a 5,000-litre water tank."
In a measure of just how far he'd come in turning his life around, he says: "I even convinced my father to allocate 2.8 acres of land, which WFP developed further.
"One thing I have engraved in my mind is that my disability won't determine my future. As long as one of my legs can move, I'll go out there and keep on working."
As Kenya's weather changes with more frequent climate shocks, many pastoralists are at breaking point. From 2021-23, Kenya faced its worst drought in four decades, enduring five consecutive failed rainy seasons and record-breaking floods.
As their animals die from thirst or are swept away by floodwaters, thousands of herders are increasingly looking for alternative ways to support their families. In Esinyen's village, many sought advice from the man they once accused of witchcraft because he had been able to transform infertile soil.
Participating in WFP's Mastercard Foundation-funded youth innovation challenge, Esinyen learned about climate-resilient agriculture techniques, business development and irrigation equipment.
Young people account for a third of Kenya's population. A large percentage are unemployed, driving many to migrate from rural areas to urban hubs.
Esinyen was selected to train as a "farmer service centre" - a trusted agripreneur who links farmers in his community with markets and supplies.
He was among 58,000 people in Kenya who joined WFP-backed training on business development, leadership training and climate-smart agriculture. He attended in-person and online sessions using a tablet provided by WFP, and was linked with other young mentors to learn from their farming successes.
On a trip to Makueni, another dry area in the country, he met a farmer who uses a wheelchair. "His farm was still very green," he says. "He's created jobs for other youth. I thought: I've only got one leg but I'm not in a wheelchair - why can't I do more than this man?"
Esinyen learned a variety of skills, including how to grow crops such as watermelons in zai pits - basins dug to retain moisture and direct water to the roots of plants - and rearing poultry.
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His earnings have risen from around US$1.50 per day to US$35 in just two years, thanks to acquiring business skills including monitoring profits and losses, sourcing quality inputs and finding bigger buyers.
Esinyen is able to pay for his wife's education, put food on the table and continue his own studies - he's currently completing his diploma in agriculture.
Family members who had previously rejected him because of his disability "are now coming to me, they are seeing me as a human being," he says.
Since joining the project, he's trained 15 groups of women - more than 200 people - in climate-friendly agribusinesses such as poultry farming, linked them to buyers and helped them access loans and inputs.
Thanks to his efforts, his village no longer has to rely on humanitarian assistance when drought bites. "Before, this area looked like a desert in the dry season," he says, "but now it has changed - I told everyone, we can lift up our village and help it grow."
