The Kitui government has dismissed residents’ pleas for relief food, saying the county has plenty to eat owing to the "ndengu revolution."
But residents say they're suffering from drought and call the green gram 'salvation' a fairy tale.
"For the first time in Kitui's history, it hasn't been listed by the national government among the 13 counties verging on starvation. The 'ndengu revolution' has contributed to food security,” Deputy Governor Wathe Nzau said.
He spoke on Thursday at Muthale Girls School to mark International Forest Day.
Wathe said Kitui will not be a recipient of relief food, commonly known as mwolyo, to prevent hunger due to drought.
However, he was at pains to explain the county's sudden turnabout in food fortunes, as it is an arid and semi-arid region. It lacks enough rain for successful rain-fed agriculture.
Over the years, Kitui has received relief food to support the school feeding programmes in most of the institutions.
The National Drought Management Authority report of February this year states that the drought has persisted, leading to depleted household food reserves. The problem is caused by the depressed October-December short rains.
Residents of Mbukoni, Kawala, Makongo, Ngaaka and Imumbu in Kitui South said the last planting season was poor.
The crops died due to poor rainfall and farmers are counting losses.
Earlier in the week, Kitui East residents said they were in dire need of humanitarian support. They asked the national and county governments to help as the rains have been delayed.
Residents were sceptical of the reporting giving Kitui a clean bill of health on food security.
They said the NDMA report was politically motivated to justify the county government's much-touted 'ndengu revolution'.
They called the green grams story a "fairy tale" in the midst of ravaging drought in Kitui South, Kitui East, Mwingi North, Mwingi Central and other parts of the vast county.
"Nothing drastic has occurred in Kitui to change this narrative of dry spell coupled with global warming and climate change. We need 'mwolyo'," resident Tito King’oli said.
He said the October-December rains were a total failure and farmers did not harvest anything. Their granaries are empty, they said.
"Right now, we have one borehole serving over 4, 000 households in Kavingo sublocation. We jostle for the water daily. We have no other economic venture since our main worry is water for domestic use and livestock," he said.
