Gov’t Reintroduces Temporary Physical Food Distribution As 2.8 Million Kenyans Battle Effects Of Drought 

NAIROBI,Kenya, Mar, 16 – The adverse effects of drought spanning several months in the country continues to affect at least 2.8 million Kenyans mostly from the Arid and Semi Arid Lands (ASAL) counties.

So far, the government has listed 23 counties as those affected by the drought.

14 have been designated as being in the ‘red counties’ meaning that the drought situation is critical while 9 have been listed in the ‘Amber counties’ category where the siltation is moderate.

Government spokesperson, Col Rtd. Cyrus Oguna has said that the government has rolled out several interventions to mitigate the effects of the drought.

This includes rolling out the emergency relief cash transfer programme launched in December 2021 targeting 225,705 people in the affected counties.

“Each beneficiary receives Sh3,000 as emergency relief.The total amounted disbursed is Sh677,115,000 in the month of December 2021 and another similar mount for January and February 2022 period,” said Oguna in a statement.

Due to minor challenges experienced with emergency cash transfer affecting a few individual in the targeted group, the government reintroduced physical food distribution to all the counties as an emergency intervention to help the affected communities.

63,100 ( 50kg) bags of rice, 62,000  (50kg) bags of beans and 800 cartons of corned beef have been distributed.

“As physical distribution of relief food continues, it is important to state that it is not replacing emergency cash transfer program. It is only being deployed as an emergency intervention to help areas where food amy be a challenge to acquire even when one has the money,” he said.

Another short term intervention the the government continues to implement is the water trucking services as well as the livestock off take program which aims to off load weak cattle.

Sh450 million ahas been set aside for this exercise which is in its first phase.

Government however says that it will roll out long term interventions including infrastructure development that will entail rehabilitation of weather proof infrastructure, sustainable livelihoods that will entail provision of vaccine for cattle and an environment for economic activities.

Also the establishment for early warning systems in drought risk management that will aid response interventions, the improvement of health and education facilities and enhancement of peace and security in some parts of the country that suffer tremendously during drought period.