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1mon agoSTEPHEN ASTARIKONorth-eastern
Former Mandera Senator Billow Kerrow has criticised the county government’s decision to relocate this year’s Jamhuri Day celebrations to Elwak, calling it wasteful and tone-deaf as the region faces an escalating drought emergency.
In a strongly worded post, he questioned why the county would pour millions into a travelling ceremony after publicly admitting it lacks resources to respond adequately to the deepening crisis.
“There is a drought in Mandera… yet it is now being confirmed that the December 12, Jamhuri Day celebrations will be moved from the county headquarters to Elwak Town,” he wrote.
For years, the county has rotated the national fete among its subcounties—Rhamu, Banisa and Takaba among them.
Kerrow, a long-time critic of the current administration, said such tradition cannot justify extravagance at a time when residents are struggling for basic survival.
He listed the long list of expenses the county would incur—transporting parade officers, police bands, officials from both levels of government, school choirs, cultural troupes and elders; hiring tents, chairs and carpets; fuelling vehicles; accommodation; meals and allowances—a bill he argued would run into tens of millions, which should instead be feeding hungry families and trucking water to desperate villages.
“It was only last week that the governor announced the county has just 10 water bowsers for 300 sites in need and appealed for 40 more. The people of Elwak need food, not shows. Cancel this arrangement. It’s a waste of resources. And it’s insensitive,” Kerrow said.
His remarks come barely a week after Governor Mohamed Khalif made a public appeal for urgent support from the national government, development partners, humanitarian agencies and the private sector, warning that Mandera is staring at one of its worst droughts in recent memory.
Three consecutive failed rainy seasons—the October–December 2024 rains, followed by the total failure of the March–May and October–December 2025 seasons—have compounded the crisis.
Water sources have dried up, livestock losses are rising and households are struggling to cope with the mounting pressure.
A recent assessment by the Department of Water Services and the National Drought Management Authority paints an increasingly alarming picture: more than 95 per cent of all surface water sources, including pans and underground tanks, have dried up.
Communities are now almost entirely reliant on boreholes and emergency water trucking.
At least 120,000 residents depend on trucked water every day—a number projected to surpass 250,000 by January 2026, if the rains fail again.
The governor said the county has activated multiple interventions through its Disaster Risk Management Technical Working Group, but admitted that the magnitude of the crisis has stretched its capacity.
The county, Khalif noted, cannot manage alone.
