• The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization experts have warned that the locusts are breeding and the country should expect more invasions by mature swarms soon.
• In Mandera Governor Ali Roba said that more than 80 per cent of the county’s landmass is under locusts invasion.
Desert locusts have damaged 470,000 acres of crops and destroyed 741,000 acres of vegetation in Wajir, Governor Mohamed Abdi has said.
Abdi said more efforts need to put in place to eradicate the locusts. He spoke to the press in Wajir town Friday.
He thanked the directorate of plant protection, the East African Desert Locusts Control and other stakeholders for their logistical and technical support.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization experts have warned that the locusts are breeding and the country should expect more invasions by mature swarms soon.
The governor said this will overstretch the county's limited capacity to cope after battling the nearly two months-long invasions.
“The invasion continues to pose a serious food security threat and has impacted negatively the livelihoods of our pastoralist communities,” Abdi said.
The county chief said the county is still vulnerable to the impacts of these damaging insects hence will continue to appeal for external support.
Elsewhere, Mandera Governor Ali Roba said that more than 80 per cent of the county’s landmass is under locusts invasion.
Roba said the government is ill-prepared in terms of expertise and resources to manage the locusts disaster.
He said an estimated 220 to 350 tonnes of pasture and crops are destroyed each day in the county.
“We have been carrying out manual spraying of the insects with limited success. We will continue praying to God to cushion our people and environment from this disaster,” he said.
Last week, Agriculture CS Peter Munya promised to deliver more equipment to the three counties in Northern Kenya to prevent the spread of the desert locusts from causing more damage.
The locusts entered Wajir county on December 29 and have infested 17 counties.
By February 7, new sightings had been made in Kajiado, Muranga and Turkana counties.
Others are Marsabit, Samburu, Garissa, Isiolo, Laikipia, Meru, Baringo, Embu, Machakos, Makueni, Tharaka Nithi, and Kitui.
Desert locusts were first reported on December 28 last year after crossing from Somalia to El Wak in Mandera.
David Mwangi, head of Plant Protection Services in the Ministry of Agriculture said the last locust invasion reported in Kenya was in 2007 in Mandera and Wajir counties.
He said the locusts came from Ethiopia and Somalia because they multiply in the Red Sea coastal region of Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and then across areas of Saudi Arabia and Yemen.