Herders and farmers seek reasons for east Africa’s drought

Afew years ago, before the great drought, Molu Golbowa looked into a goat’s intestines and foresaw the disaster to come. Some of his neighbours listened and sold their animals while they could. Others scorned his predictions. The old ways were idolatry, said a local sheikh.And then the rains failed for five seasons in a row. The plains of northern Kenya turned to dust, swept by a scudding wind. Animals dropped dead from hunger and disease. What was the cause? “God knows,” says Huri Mahabolle, a herder who lost all but 14 of his 150 goats.