- Timamy said Lamu East has more than 10,000 people affected and the disaster has been worsened due to the lack of water.
- Macharia said the relief food, however, was little considering the number of families affected.
Image: ALPHONCE GARI
The Lamu county government has formed a task force to address the drought that has affected more than 20,000 families.
Governor Issa Timamy said the task force is composed of officials from the county, national government and other stakeholders. The team is tasked with coming up with solutions to address the biting hunger.
Timamy said Lamu East has more than 10,000 people affected and the disaster has been worsened due to the lack of water.
"We have already formed a task force of which I am the chairman and my co-chairperson is the county commissioner and we are preparing funds that will be made available soon to counter the disaster," he said.
Timamy said they will increase funds in the budget to deal with the drought and they will buy three water bowsers to help in water tracking.
He said they will also repair boreholes that are not working and sink more in areas lacking water.
The governor said the desalination plants that not working and other storage facilities shall also be repaired to increase access to water.
He said the national government has disbursed relief food which will be distributed to the affected families.
“I would like to assure Lamu people that we will stand firm to ensure we do not lose anyone due to hunger,” he said.
Timamy also promised to roll out the feeding programme for children under the age of six in ECD to encourage them to stay in school.
County commissioner Irungu Macharia said they have received 1,200, 50kg bags of rice, 440, 50kg bags of beans and 300 boxes of canned meat.
Macharia said the relief food, however, was little considering the number of families affected.
“We would like to ask members of the public to cooperate with the donation and relief committee, chiefs and administrators in the grassroots to distribute the food to the affected people only,” he said.
Residents from the Boni Forest, which is among the highly affected area said water has become a rare commodity in the area.
They said getting two jerricans of 20 litres per day is not enough, particularly for mothers with young children who require up to 20 jerricans.
"At times it is difficult to cook food due to lack of water," a resident said.
Another resident said transporting water from Hindi costs Sh400 which is expensive.
(Edited by Tabnacha O)