The government continues to monitor the drought situation in the country despite the ongoing short rains to establish the needs of the affected livelihoods and their prospects of recovery.
Although the rains have been reported across the country bringing with it some respite, unfortunately in the ASALs, the current shorts rains season has so far made little or no impact to reverse the severity of the crisis.
In a press statement by the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) has consequently raised the red flag of a real possibility of a fifth failed season after the November drought situation report indicated that 20 out of the 23 ASAL counties was in dire need of humanitarian relief and assistance.
Cabinet Secretary for East Africa Community, ASALs and Regional Development Ms Rebecca Miano says that although the he situation may slightly improve especially on environmental indicators, the gains are projected to be short-lived as the country heads into the normal dry spell of January-March.
She added that the government, with support from development partners, UN Agencies, other state and non-state actors and the private sector, has scaled up targeted response interventions to reach the most vulnerable in the community in the sectors of food aid/cash transfer, water, livestock, agriculture, health & nutrition, education, peace and security.
“Through the flush appeal by the UN Agencies and efforts by the National Steering Committee on Drought Response, the Government and partners have been able to raise funds to scale up operations in ASALs and to other pockets of non-ASAL counties equally affected by drought,” said CS Miano.
Both national and county governments have spent more than Sh16 billion on drought response and the development partners have together spent over Sh47 billion.
“In addition to the various resource streams, the Government has also launched an Mpesa Pay bill for drought response where Kenyans can channel their contributions to the drought response kitty,” said the Cabinet Secretary.
Miano reiterated that the government continues to monitor the performance of the short rains season to establish the extent to which the season is impacting on the local livelihoods and the recovery rate.
During the reporting month of November, only the county of Laikipia slightly improved to Alert phase leaving Thirteen (13) counties namely; Taita Taveta, Isiolo, Kilifi, Kwale, Samburu, Turkana, Wajir, Kitui, Kajiado, Mandera, Garissa, Tana River and Marsabit are in Alarm drought phase.
Seven (7) counties including; Narok, Tharaka Nithi, Makueni, Nyeri, Meru and Laikipia are under Alert drought phase while the remaining three (3) counties including Baringo, West
Pokot and Lamu are in Normal drought phase.
NDMA has confirmed that the number of people requiring humanitarian assistance still stands at 4.35 million as risks of acute malnutrition continued to be reported in ASAL counties where 942,000 cases of children aged 6-59 months and 134,000 cases of pregnant or lactating women acutely malnourished continue to access treatment.
Kenya is among the Horn of Africa countries affected by the current severe drought in the region that has left millions in across the region, which includes Kenya, Djibouti, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan and Ethiopia, facing acute food insecurity and
malnutrition.
The current pasture and browse condition remained poor. However, distances to water sources for both households and livestock improved as a result of the short rains.
