With temperatures averaging 35 degrees, Turkana County is hot and dry.

The sparsely populated terrain, dotted with arid land shrubs and bushes, creates an illusion of emptiness, only broken by lone herdsmen with goats and camels searching for pasture and water.

But Turkana is nothing but empty.

The KenGen Foundation team had a rare opportunity to visit Turkana, courtesy of Tullow Oil, during a 3-day look and learn tour aimed at exploring the possibility of expanding the Schools Green Initiative Challenge in the area.

The KenGen team, comprising of Anthony Igecha, Cathy Kwena, and Ernest Nyamasyo, touched down at Kapese airstrip, Lokichar, on August 30 after an hour’s flight from Nairobi.

At Tullow Oil’s – Kapese Integrated Operations Base camp, the team underwent an intense induction on health, safety, and living procedures, before heading out to visit the company’s Enterprise Development Centre (EDC), based at Tullow’s Community Resource Centre.

Tullow Oil PLC, a British-owned oil exploration company, discovered an estimated 750 million barrels of crude oil in Turkana County in 2011. While resource commercialization is not expected to begin for several years, the Turkana oil finds have been celebrated both locally and nationally.

Guided by Joseph Loibach, Tullow Oil’s Coordinator in charge of f strategic project partnership, and Kenneth Kamau, Environmental Lead, the team learnt that since it started operations, Tullow Oil has been engaging with the local communities in creating business opportunities as one of the ways of sharing the prosperity created by the oil and gas industry.

The EDC, fully equipped with laptop computers, a projector, tree seedlings, and a demonstration site, is a one-stop shop for capacity buildings and mentorship on business skills for the local community.

Apart from the EDC, Tullow Oil has also instituted a ‘beyond oil’ initiative dubbed the Livelihood and Enterprise Development Centre (LEDC) for building a diverse and resilient micro-economy for the community; address capacity gaps; and promote an integrated approach to delivery of solutions through partnerships.

These efforts have truly paid off, as 70% of Tullow’s 194 permanent employees are Kenyan nationals. Additionally, the company not only works in collaboration with the Turkana County government, but also committed to promoting local businesses’ participation in their supply chain for the sourcing of goods, services, and expertise locally.

A trip to check out a barren well pad on the second day introduced the Foundation team to the bigger picture.

A short drive later, the team arrives at Lopii Primary School. The head teacher Peter Ekai was enthusiastic in starting the GIC project in his school, which also desperately needs water harvesting and storage structures.

Nakukulas Primary School impressed the team at their next stop, where the institution’s management had already started a tree-planting program. The head teacher, Mr. David Epur was eager to join the GIC as the students were already engaged in such a project.

At Tullow Oil’s Nakuklas Community Resource Centre, the team was introduced to Barefoot Solutions, who work with Tullow Oil in running a community demonstration site for permaculture. Apart from recycling Tullow Oil’s food waste into compost, Barefoot Solutions also train farmers in dry land agriculture through simple innovations. It is their wish that the local community attain food security in the near future.

Mathew Epetet, the head teacher of Karoge Primary School was determined that students will embrace the GIC project, despite the fact that the school needed major infrastructural upgrading, while Ms. Njogu of Uhuru Girls Secondary school welcomed the idea of creating woodlots on the 25 acres of land.

The principal of AGC Boys Secondary School Ms. Leah Losuru said that the school was more than ready for the project to start since they already had an environmental club, which encourages tree planting as a co-curriculum activity.

Despite the climate challenges facing Turkana County, including insecurity, lack of teachers, and low student turn out, the GIC was generally accepted as a noble project that will sustainably change the landscape of the area.

The GIC project, which involves participating schools competing in nurturing drought resistant tree seedlings, has also set its sights to Mombasa, Kisumu and Naivasha counties as part of its expansion plan.

Indeed, greening Turkana County will definitely be worth the combined efforts of the Foundation and Tullow Oil.

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–Ernest Nyamasyo, Communication Officer