Aidan Hartley Aidan Hartley

There are almost no animals left – but we’ve been here before

In northern Kenya, eight in ten of all cattle died in the dry stretch of 1984

We are seeing what might become the worst drought since 1984 [Avalon.red/Alamy Stock Photo] 
issue 30 July 2022

Laikipia

You know things are bad when the zebras are thin. Even during most droughts, zebras are like matrons at the gym in stripey spandex stretched around plump buttocks. Pastures vanished long ago and our plains resemble Sudan’s Batn-el-Hajar – the Belly of Stones desert – so that I cannot even recall what they were like when they were last thick with green grass.

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