WAKENYA TULINDANE CAMPAIGN DISTRIBUTES FOOD WORTH KSHS. 150 MILLION  

 The National Steering Committee on Drought Response has  distributed food worth Kshs.  150 million to over 320,000 people representing 53,400 families in Kajiado, Isiolo, Samburu, Mandera, Kitui, Kilifi, Wajir, Marsabit and Turkana Counties. The committee will distribute food hampers in the nine  regions as part of its short term strategy in an effort to mitigate the ongoing drought. Recently, It  announced that  it had raised Kshs.  650 million from Kenyans as part of drought response efforts. “We are reaching out to some of the hardest hit communities with food hampers as part of our immediate plan measures as the committee. We have other plans such as rehabilitation of boreholes in most of the ASAL counties that will seek to create a greater sustainability in dealing with the drought as we collaborate with the government and other stakeholders for longer term measures that will alleviate this drought crisis,” said Peter Ndegwa, Chairman, National Steering Committee on Drought Response.

 The latest data from the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) shows that six  million Kenyans from thirty two  counties are food insecure with the persisting drought set to continue due to depressed rainfall.  At least 970,000 children and 142,000 pregnant women are malnourished with urgent lifesaving interventions needed. The number of malnourished children has risen from 884,000 children as at July 2022. This data   also shows that in Turkana, Marsabit, Wajir, Mandera and Garissa counties,  at least 55% of the population are in crisis. The report also shows that over 2.6 million heads of livestock have died as a result of the drought. Water availability has been suppressed with 60% of open water sources drying up and most permanent rivers recording below 40% of normal flow.

 The   food distribution exercise   by the steering committee is a follow up to the one carried out in December last year where at least 85,000 people received food donations in sub-counties in Samburu, Meru, Kitui, Kilifi and Marsabit.