Faced with brutal drought, Kenyan herders look for hope underground

A Samburu man giving his cows water from a well in Kom village, Samburu County, Kenya. Photos: AP

Letoyie Leroshi walked for five days hunting water. After three years of drought in Samburu County, Kenya, the riverbeds were bone-dry.

Then Leroshi found a patch of wettish sand in the sunbaked Ewaso Ng’iro riverbed. He brought a group of fellow herders to dig. They hit water and the jubilant young men broke into song, a traditional call to their cattle and camels.