River Yawo in Oriang Manywanda-Homabay County becomes extinct

By Adipo Duncan, 5.April 2018.

River Yawo was right in the middle between my school, Pier Got, and our home.

A dried off River Yawo in Oriang Manywanda-Homabay County, in Kenya. //Photo:Courtesy

It was such a dear natural resource to the community and was used by all with utmost care. Though midsized, the river served the whole of Kasibong village and far beyond.

The community had unspoken rules on how to use the river. Such rules included the distance from which one was allowed to “trough bathe” or wash by the riverside to avoid water running back to the river that would pollute it. It was not uncommon to find people squatting behind the shrubs around the river as they bathed their body.

In some instances, especially during dry season, one would fetch the water using a basin for the livestock and have them drink at a distance too (I am yet to understand why living beings, especially livestock, always feel the urge to relieve themselves once inside the water. I think it provides some sense of relief-what massage does to the body perhaps).

River Yawo was home to mudfish (mumi) whenever it rained.I learnt that mud fish can hibernate deep inside the mud in the absence of water even for four years only to come out when water collects.

What is special about Yawo for us kids is the fact that it served as our swimming pool. It was in that river where I learnt how to swim at a very tender age almost by reflex before graduating to Awach, a furiously flowing river that was mostly relied on for drinking water. No one taught us how to sleep-there were no swimming lessons, we just observed our peers.

When the rainy season had passed and the river was no longer flowing, it was expected that swimming would also stop to keep it clean and healthy.

Jaduong “Ongus”, a respected mzee, whose home was strategically overlooking Yawo, was very keen not only on river Yawo’s cleanliness but also overall security of the community. He would see anyone doing anything the river and was always watching on people who came by to swim.

He was known to fetch our clothes whenever we were swimming. Woe unto you if he caught you or got hold of your clothes. We had to get punished before getting our clothes back. Running after him naked while pleading for the clothes was just punishment enough but in some instance, he would report you to the school or your parents and have you caned properly?

On our way back to school under the scorching sun, we would pass by Yawo and quickly do a few rounds of swimming before running to school. Fortunately, we had a warning bell in school which informed the whole village that it was 1:45...fifteen minutes to 2 o’clock when the afternoon classes would start.

As fun loving kids, we had developed strategies to swim even when it was not allowed.

Our strategy; Every time, we would have a designated clothes handler who would also double up as the watch tower guy –watching on Mzee. The guy would alert us whenever they saw the Mzee and we would run away.

We did not have towels to dry our body nor oil to "soften" our skin after swimming. The sun did its bit by keeping us dry and warm. We would reach school when our body was all white..."watar ka min ojow biye" and just get on with our lessons-refreshed and energized 'lakadono'.

Didn’t we enjoy our childhood and schooling?

But now Yawo is all dry, SADLY.