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Samburu pastoralists live in traditional homesteads known as a manyatta (seen here from the air on approach to Wamba airstrip). The houses tend to be constructed from plastered mud or animal hides stretched over a basic wooden frame. The roughly circular, temporary compounds are usually home to several Samburu families. The boundary is made from dead acacia thorns, to help keep out unwanted predators that threaten livestock also kept within the homestead. Some areas are used to rear young animals, to grow a few crops and in some cases medicinal plants.