Millennium Villages Blog

Local and national officials attending the event

May 2009 was a turning point for the people of the Millennium Village of Dertu, Northern Kenya. The administrative status of Dertu changed from Location to Division, and the day was marked with jovial celebrations headed by the Provincial Commissioner for North Eastern Province Josphat Maingi, the Deputy Speaker and Member of Parliament for Lagdera (the constituency where Dertu is located) Farah Maalim, and the District Commissioner for Lagdera, Titus Murugu . The day ended with the introduction and posting of a new District Officer Guyo Adano. Henceforth, Dertu Center became the administrative headquarters for what will likely include four to five other as-yet-unidentified locations.

Dertu had to battle it out with at least six other Locations within the region to gain the new status. Dertu Location is the newest amongst all the candidate Locations – it is only 12 years old while some of the heavyweight Locations are two to four times older. But Dertu had the upper hand because the government based its decision to select the best Location for a Divisional headquarters on the availability of social services. These included the status of health services, education, water, accessibility in terms of transport and telecommunications, and possibility of networking with development partners.

The community taking part in the day’s celebrations

Fortunately for Dertu, MVP and partners, along with with the Government and local community, have been closely implementing an all round research and development model in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Within two years, Dertu became the most wired (with mobile network and internet) village amongst the pastoral villages in Kenya and the region. Today over 70% of the road traffic to Northern Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia passes through the once remote village. Moreover, when the project started in 2006, there were less than ten houses with iron sheets yet today there are well over 200 houses. The once poorly equipped clinic (in terms of staff and equipment) is today the most vibrant in the region, treating and immunizing five time as many cases per month as before the project started. In terms of water, Dertu’s borehole is the most reliable water source within the region and Dertu Primary school is today housing almost three times more pupils than in 2006 especially girls - thanks to the availability of boarding facilities and other amenities. Based on the above and many more development advantages that MVP and partners brought, Dertu clinched the top position and was consequently selected as the newest Division within Lagdera District.

What are the advantages of being a Divisional headquarters?

• The change in status means that many national services (administration decision making, extension and research) become within reach of the community.
  For example, the Dertu Clinic will soon become a Health Centre and therefore will receive more government resources in form of personnel, equipment and drugs. There will also be a Zonal Education Officer and other heads from the different major Government sectors that will be based in the once remote Dertu. As a result, community members will no longer go to far away towns such as Dadaab (70 km) and Garissa (100 km) in search of services.
• The new District Officer will head a very important decision making organ (in all research and development issues) called Sub-District Development Committee. We foresee that our Millennium Village Advisory Committee (a community structure), MVP - Dertu will participate in this committee.

What made us celebrate is that Dertu became a division in such a short time compared to other locations in the region. Our sincere appreciation goes to the different partners especially Government institutions, the local Member of Parliament, Arid Lands, Ericsson, Zain, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP), UNICEF, and the Red Cross. Without your support we would not have come this far.

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