- “The depressed rains will worsen the situation,” Aiyabei said.
- He said 1.5 million livestock have also been lost, a move that is negatively impacting livelihoods.
More Kenyans are likely to go to bed hungry following food insecurity in the country, Kenya Red Cross Society has warned.
Already, 3.5 million Kenyans are in dire need of food.
KRCS head of Disaster Management Dr Michael Aiyabei told the Star on Sunday that the situation is likely to deteriorate further. “The depressed rains will worsen the situation.”
By the end of 2021, 2.8 million Kenyans were going to bed on an empty stomach as compared to 3.1 million in late February 2022.
Aiyabei said most farmers in the country’s bread basket planted late due to the onset of long rains.
Others practiced dry planting and their seeds and fertilisers have been lost.
Aiyabei said 1.5 million livestock have also been lost, a move that is negatively impacting livelihoods.
He said more livestock are likely to be lost as a result of flash floods that might be witnessed because some are too weak while others will not contain temperature changes.
Aiyabei said cases of children malnourishment has also increased by 15.6 per cent from 652,960 in August 2021.
“There has been an increased resource based conflict leading to 207 fatalities, 119 injuries and 2,764 household displacements,” he said.
Aiyabei said as part of the intervention, the society has distributed food to 43,342 households and cash transfers for 21,482 households.
He said health outreaches have been done in seven counties while animal off-take of 500 sheep and goats has been done in Kwale.
Aiyabei said urgent needs include nutrition support for 350,000 under five and 50,000 pregnant and lactating mothers.
He said there is need to rehabilitate 46 water facilities in 11 counties and water purification materials to 37,000 households.
Also, animal off-take programme needs to be undertaken in 13 counties.
The World Food Programme and the Intergovernmental Authority for Development have also sounded an alarm.
WFP's regional director for Eastern Africa Michael Dunford said the number of people pushed into hunger because of drought in the Horn of Africa could rise from the current 14 million to 20 million by the end of the year.
Dunford said if the long rains fail to materialise, it will be the fourth consecutive failed season.
This as the region reels from food and fuel prices rising to unprecedented levels because of the war in Ukraine.
“We know from past experience that acting early to avert a humanitarian catastrophe is vital, yet our ability to launch the response has been limited due to a lack of funding,” Dunford said.
WFP and other humanitarian agencies have been warning the international community since last year that this drought could be disastrous, if we didn’t act immediately.
However, funding has failed to materialise at the scale required.
WFP said there is severe drought in Somalia, Kenya and southern Ethiopia.
In January, WFP launched an appeal for $327 million (about Sh37.8 billion) to reach 4.5 million people affected.
The amount was meant to scale up assistance and save lives across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.
Dunford said WFP will need to support up to 7.5 million people for the next six months at a cost of $473 million (about Sh54.7 billion).
WFP is now in the process of revising its numbers.
On April 13, WFP said 90 per cent of open water sources in Turkana county had dried up, pushing more people towards starvation.
WFP said it is moving from village to village enrolling the worst affected for a cash stipend. It said 6,000 families will receive this assistance – but many more need help.
On April 11, the Intergovernmental Authority for Development said the number of Kenyans in dire need of food had reached 3.5 million and is still increasing.
IGAD warned that the number will rise since there is a prediction that rains will fail in the Eastern Africa region for the fourth consecutive season.
IGAD executive secretary Dr Workneh Gebeyehu said Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia have had a drought of a length not experienced in the last 40 years.
Gebeyehu described the situation as dire.
"The March-April-May rains are crucial for the region and, sadly, we are looking at not just three, but potentially four consecutive failed seasons."
Gebeyehu said the situation has been worsened by conflicts, the impact of Covid-19 and macroeconomic challenges.
Drought in Kenya has plunged 23 counties into crisis, which the government has declared a national disaster.
Counties reeling from the effects of drought include Kwale, Lamu, Kilifi, Taita Taveta, Tana River, Turkana, Samburu and West Pokot.
Others are Baringo, Kajiado, Narok, Laikipia, Nyeri, Embu, Meru, Tharaka Nithi, Makueni, Kitui, Marsabit, Isiolo, Wajir, Garissa and Mandera.
The forecast by the Kenya Meteorological Department for the March-April-May 2022 long rain season showed enhanced rainfall was expected in some regions.
They include the highlands west of the Rift Valley, the Lake Victoria Basin, central and south Rift Valley. The prediction had a 35 per cent probability.
The forecast said rain was also expected in the northwest, the highlands east of the Rift Valley, including Nairobi and the southeastern lowlands.
The March-April-May rain season is important in Kenya as it is the time farmers plant.
Gebeyehu said the Food Security and Nutrition Working Group co-chaired by IGAD and FAO, estimates that more than 29 million people are facing high levels of food insecurity across the IGAD region.
"Already, between 15.5 million-16 million of our sisters and brothers are in need of immediate food assistance due to the drought. This is six million-6.5 million in Ethiopia, 3.5 million in Kenya, and six million in Somalia," he said.
Gebeyehu said in the southern-central part of Somalia, the situation is catastrophic, with 81,000 people at risk of famine.
IGAD is calling on member states, donors and humanitarian partners to increase their emergency response in the affected countries immediately to avoid further worsening of the humanitarian crisis.
Gebeyehu said livelihood programmes must be scaled-up to protect farmers, agro-pastoralists and pastoralists.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)