Poor rainfall to blame for persistent drought

Women fetching water from a well in Chesakam, Baringo County, on January 8, 2017. The county is being ravaged by drought. PHOTO | CHEBOITE KIGEN | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The livestock industry is particularly at risk, since the Coast, which is usually the grazing fall-back region, is also experiencing severe drought.
  • Mr Kiunjuri on Thursday said the short rains were too weak to have had any impact on the country.
  • Children have left with their parents in search of food after exhausting their stocks while relief supplies have declined.

Eleven counties have been hit hard by the ongoing drought, which Devolution Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri said is getting worse.

The livestock industry is particularly at risk, since the Coast, which is usually the grazing fall-back region, is also experiencing severe drought.

Cross-border migration of animals has been limited, too.

Mr Kiunjuri on Thursday said the short rains were too weak to have had any impact on the country.

“Poor short rains last year followed an equally poor long rains season,” he added.

And though Mr Kiunjuri told Kenyans that maize, beans, rice, sorghum and millet stocks would last to June, he added that the counties would monitor the situation.

“By October last year, it was evident that the situation was getting worse and so the government came up with some interventions,” Mr Kiunjuri said.

A Cabinet memorandum adopted in November after a multisectoral and intergovernmental planning process agreed to set up three phases of Sh21.4 billion interventions that are to end in July.

“The ministry distributed food valued at Sh824 million to the affected counties in November and December 2016,” the minister said.

Mr Kiunjuri added that the Devolution ministry, with the support of the European Union, had since August released Sh190 million to help 15 counties fight drought.

“A bi-monthly regular cash transfer to 97,000 households in Mandera, Wajir, Marsabit and Turkana, with help from the UK Department for International Development, is ongoing,” he said, adding that every family was entitled to Sh5,400 per transfer.

NATIONAL DISASTER
Water CS Eugene Wamalwa said the State Department of Water Services was allocated Sh221 million.

“The department distributed Sh30 million for the purchase of collapsible tanks for the Coast, Northern, Rift and Athi water service boards,” he said.

The ministers said the government would scale up food and cash relief, improve access to water and health, provide livestock feeds and improve storage of harvests.

The cabinet and principal secretaries from various ministries spoke as leaders across the country said Kenyans were suffering.

In Turkana, Loima MP Protus Akuja and former Turkana Central MP Immanuel Imana asked the government to declare the drought a national disaster.

“Addressing the drought requires the efforts of the government and development partners. Climate change has made it impossible to predict rainy seasons.

"The county government should ask for support in feeding its people,” Mr Akuja said.

He said animals were dying in their thousands in Turkana North, Kibish, Turkana West and parts of Loima, sub-counties that do not have permanent rivers.

Hundreds of pastoralists have migrated to Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia.

The elderly, women and children left behind are feeling the effects of the drought.

In parts of the North Rift, schools could be shut down.

Officials say that more than 650,000 residents are in need of relief food.

The worst hit is West Pokot County and Tiaty Sub-County in Baringo.

Children have left with their parents in search of food after exhausting their stocks while relief supplies have declined.

Leaders and teachers’ unions also petitioned the government to declare the famine a national disaster and hasten the distribution of food and other supplies.

“The drought has increased school dropout rates and the situation is likely to deteriorate if the government and other agencies do not come to our rescue,” Mr Martin Sembelo, the West Pokot Kenya National Union of Teachers executive secretary, said.

Schools in parts of Samburu County remained closed in the first week of the term as drought ravaged the region.

Many primary and day secondary school learners are still at home.

OMINOUS FUTURE
A bag of maize is going for Sh3,400, up from Sh2,800, while that of wheat costs Sh3,600, from Sh3,200. Many farmers are hoarding their produce.

The price of beans has remained high. A 90kg bag sells at between Sh6,400 and Sh7,000.

Farmers and experts blame low yields in the last season.

Some of the most affected areas, include northern, central and eastern parts of Samburu County.

The drought has not spared parts of Nyeri County. Agriculture executive Robert Thuo recently said many residents were in danger of starving.

According to Mr Thuo, 24,245 people are in dire need of assistance. He said the number could rise since the region experienced low rainfall.

In Marsabit, the Red Cross Society said it would provide Sh3,000 to each of the 900 families with malnourished children in North Horr and Laisamis sub-counties.

Upper Eastern Red Cross coordinator Talaso Chucha said the money would be disbursed from Saturday.

Ms Talaso said screening of children under five in Loiyangalani, Marsabit Central and North Horr sub-counties last November showed that many were in dire need of food.

In Garissa County, the government has asked the residents to take their animals at risk of dying to a livestock off-take programme launched Thursday.

Speaking at the livestock market when he officially launched the programme, Mr Hassan Jelle, a top official with the Kenya Meat Commission, said the government had injected Sh170 million into the scheme, which was in its first phase.

Reported by Stella Cherono, Sammy Lutta, Wycliff Kipsang, Barnabas Bii, Godfrey Oundoh, Irene Mugo, Ken Bett and Abdimalik Hajir