The death toll from hunger has hit 21 after Chepkwony Borjiroot, 75, died at Barketiew village, Baringo North subcounty on Sunday night.
Starvation threatens over 800 displaced victims of a bandit attack in Ilchamus, including schoolchildren resettled at Mukutani, Baringo South, last October.
“We found the lifeless body of the old man. He had been complaining of hunger and stomach pain the previous evening,” Yatya resident Joseph Toroitich said.
Toroitich said the ailing old man lived alone and it was suspected hunger killed him as the entire place is ravaged by drought.
“His sickness worsened in the last two weeks such that he could not walk the more than 15km to find water or purchase food in Yatya centre like the rest of us, ” he said.
On Monday, the government denied reports of deaths from hunger.
The Baringo old man, who was a beneficiary of the Inua Jamii government programme, had not received the cash for the elderly for close to six months.
Toroitich further said impassable roads and hilly terrain made it impossible to rush the aged man for emergency treatment.
He said they could not transport the body to Baringo Referral Hospital mortuary in Kabarnet town 50km away.
“Instead the body is preserved inside the old man’s grass-thatched hut as it awaits burial on Tuesday.”
Yatya chief Jackson Keitany confirmed the incident, saying hunger has affected more than 30,000 families both in Baringo North and Baringo South subcounties.
“The most vulnerable in the ongoing acute drought occasioned by food and water crisis are children, women and the elderly,” Keitany said.
The worst-hit areas in Baringo North are Chemoe, Yatya, Kagir, Ngaratuko, Moininin, Sibilo, Koiboware, Biretwonin, Chepkowel, Rondinin, Chepkew, Loruk, Chepkesin and Kapturo.
On Monday, Baringo South MP Charles Kamuren appealed to the government to distribute food to feed the victims of a bandit attack living in Mukutani and Ruggus in his constituency.
He resettled the group from Eldume IDP camp last October.
“Our people have nothing to eat as the situation worsens every day,” Ilchamus resident Leshaan Olesupen said, calling on the government to intervene.
Besides urging the government to beef up security, Kamuren also called for urgent funds to fasttrack irrigation schemes in Perekerra, Eldume, Sukutek, Loboi, Sandai, Mosuro, Embosos and Kibingor.
He said the move would bring a lasting solution to the food insecurity.
Last Thursday, Lokunyale Kamusuk, 45, succumbed to a hunger-related illness and was buried at his Kamusuk home in Tiaty subcounty.
He is among 20 who succumbed at Cheptunoyo and Nalekaat villages in Silale ward.
The othres are Apewot Choriaken, Domokong Longoria, Siwan siran, Domoliyet siywalet, Chepurayi Mamet, Losirkon Lopoyii, Lobonge Kangidomoi, Chepokurer Kangidomoi, Lomoler Lodiongole, Siliarok Akiriamet and Etim Ak’ghyiang.
Four other people died in the neighbouring Turkana county where thousands face starvation.
At Kamasuk village in Tiaty is a sickly and emaciated man Lochuryo Lemeri, 79, who is staring at death.
“I have not eaten anything in the last three days,” Lemeri told the journalists at his home on Saturday.
He said the last meal he had was a bowl of bitter ‘soruch’ wild fruits which has caused him stomachache and diarrhoea.
However, Baringo County Commissioner Henry Wafula insisted that nobody has died of hunger, saying the government is doing everything possible to supply relief food.
He had accompanied Devolution CS Eugene Wamalwa to dispatch cereals at Kolowa in Tiaty on Sunday.
At the same time, over 10,000 pupils risk dropping out of school as many schools face closure due to water shortage.
CS Wamalwa flagged off more than 600 tonnes of grains as relief food in Turkana.
“We will be moving to all affected areas across the country,” he said.
