At least five counties in the country are at an alarming stage of drought with expectation of low or below-average rainfall in the March-May long rain season.
According to the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA), these counties are Wajir, Mandera, parts of Marsabit, Parts of Kilifi and Parts of Garissa County.
At the same time, at least 2 million Kenyans from the 23 Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) are food insecure between now and July this year.
Speaking during a tree planting exercise at the Modogashe Girls’ Secondary school in Garissa, NDMA Chief Executive Officer Col (Rtd.) Hared Adan said that the government has put up a contingency plan and mobilized resources to ensure that the situation does not worsen.
“In terms of the outlook, it is expected that the arid counties and parts of the coast will receive a depressed rainfall or below average, but we ask our Lord to give us the rains. In terms of drought, there are a few counties that are on alert stage, but the government has put measures through contingency planning and resource mobilization to ensure that the drought does not become a crisis,” Adan said.
“The government through the special programmes is also distributing relief food and water tracking programmes supported by the NDMA to keep the situation under control,” he added.
While calling on the stakeholders and development partners to work together through the county steering committees to avoid duplication of services, the CEO revealed that the water sector is the most affected by the drought and that they are working on at least 15 water projects across the 23 affected counties to ease access.
“The most affected sector is water and that is why we are doing water tracking in a number of counties. We have also as a government made deliberate investments in water infrastructure by improving the existing ones and developing new ones,” said Adan.
“Basically, drought should not become an emergency if we plan and be sure that the government has made plans to address the issue of drought,” he added.
Modagashe Member of County Assembly Mahat Osman on his part said that at least 17 centres in his ward require water tracking and called for sustainable measures to be put in place to ensure that water challenges are resolved for once.
“NDMA has been doing a good job to ensure that our people get water. The county government has been helping but this is not enough yet. We need all the stakeholders—the national government and non-governmental organizations to come together and bring permanent solutions,” Osman said.
By Erick Kyalo
