The Turkana government has started the distribution of relief food worth Sh419 million to the families affected by drought and famine.
Governor Josphat Nanok said the drive is meant to cushion residents affected by the biting drought.
The county announced that at least 640,000 people are in dire need of food. It has not received any rainfall since August last year.
The Public Administration and Disaster Management said the relief food procured was 4,925 tonnes worth Sh419 million.
The response comes after Loima MP Jeremiah Lomurkai recently raised concern that Sh419 million was allocated for relief food to cushion families from drought and hunger, but no distribution had taken place.
“If there were plans to supply relief food to the affected people then what is hindering them?” Lomurkai asked.
The lawmaker said thousands of people are facing starvation and in the next few days, people will start dying if food is not distributed.
“Don’t wait for people to start dying then you start food distribution and complain that media used pictures of starving people from South Sudan and DR Congo to highlight the drought and hunger crisis,” he told Nanok.
But the governor said they had started relief food distribution in Kibish, Turkana North and Turkana East and would continue the drive into Turkana Central and other affected regions.
“Relief food distribution is ongoing to the affected families. We are also facing the challenge of water scarcity in the county. Water pans and boreholes have dried up or have been overused, leading the water table to go down,” he said.
He said the county is collaborating with partners to ensure that areas where water sources have dried up or destroyed, get water through trucking or repairing the destroyed ones.
