• Governor makes personal donation to neighbouring county
• State says people are dying of illness, not hunger
West Pokot Governor John Lonyangapuo has made a personal donation of 700 bags of maize to starving families in Baringo county.
Lonyangapuo said he was touched by media photos of people were suffering in the neighbouring county and decided to donate part of his harvest last year.
Speaking on Tuesday at his Zea farm when he officially flagged off the maize, he said each ward will get 100 bags.
He confirmed that two people had died due to hunger at Akulo village along the West Pokot-Turkana border.
The National Drought Management Authority released a report that drought in the region alarming. But the government also says deaths cannot be specifically linked to famine and blames underlying causes of illness.
The governor asked Kenyans to stop politicising the donation as he was doing out of compassion and he has no interest in Baringo county.
“It’s not politics time and we shouldn't politicise the hunger currently facing most parts of the country since we shall bar other well-wishers from helping those in need," he said.
Longyangapuo said the situation was acute in his county so he donated to neighbouring Tiaty subcounty.
“As a county, we were aware drought hits this region yearly and we tried to put mitigation measures in place to reduce the severity of the drought,” he said.
The county boss said last year they distributed drought-resilient maize seeds to more than 200,000 households countywide and these led to a bumper harvest for the first time.
He said the harvest helped reduce the number of people in dire need of food.
“In previous years the county needed over 45,000 bags of maize to feed families but now we only need 10,000 bags of maize monthly basis to feed needy persons," he said.
Lonyangapuo said 50,000 people from 10 wards are affected by drought and the worst-hit areas are North Pokot subcounty, some parts of West Pokot, Central and Pkomo subcounties.
He said the affected regions and schools were receiving relief food from the county’s Strategic Grain Reserves.
“We bought some food last year from farmers during harvesting that we are supplying to affected regions as we wait for the national government donation. We are also supplying schools to retain and attract children,” the county boss said.
He also urged the government not to come up with tough laws regarding procurement since this would cripple services in counties.
“Let’s not come up with tough laws in the name of fighting corruption because these will hinder Kenyans from getting services. Last year we were supposed to buy over 20,000 bags of maize but I only bought 5,000 bags and was stopped. The maize would be helping those starving in my county right now,” he said.
He urged Kenyans to be patriotic and stop breaking the law for services to be rolled out freely.
The governor said that it was ironic for Kenyans to be lacking food and yet farmers in parts of the country have food in stores and lack a place to sell their produce.
He urged the government through the National Cereals and Produce Board to set good prices for produce since most farmers practice commercial farming.
“If the government sets prices it will discourage middlemen from exploiting farmers and prevent them from incurring losses,” Longyangapuo said.
He asked both national and county governments to come up with long-solutions to food security by setting up mini irrigation schemes.
“Drought is a yearly occurrence and we need to sink boreholes and water bans and create mini irrigation schemes to reduce overdependence on relief food,” the governor said.