Kajiado governor Joseph Lenku on Tuesday evening said the ravages of the ongoing drought are taking a toll on the lives of the county residents.
This happens when the county when the drought coordinator, Hussein Aliyo announced on Tuesday night that he will be releasing the number of the household that have been affected by the drought on Wednesday at 11 am in Kajiado town.
“They have lost thousands of their livestock, that is their livelihood. Pangs of hunger are biting them. Very few of the residents are guaranteed the next meal. It is quite scary,’ said Lenku.
But amid this crisis, Lenku said, are a people who have proved, without doubt, that they are resilient enough to overcome the disaster.
“As leaders, we cannot let them down. We must rise to the occasion and stand with them. We shall fight for them; and with them,” said Lenku.
Lenku made the remarks during the opening of the first session of the County Assembly on October 11, 2022.
He called upon all the MCAs to demonstrate their statesmanship and work closely with the county executive and all the other players.
“We need to work together with the national government and other humanitarian support organisations to ensure we contain this situation,” said Lenku.
The governor said it doesn’t matter which side of the political divide the MCAs are on because they should unite with other leaders in fighting hunger.
He said he convened a joint consultative meeting with various stakeholders and representatives of 15 humanitarian organisations to put momentum in the food search.
“It was only last week that the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed visited our county on a fact-finding mission,” said Lenku.
Kajiado, Lenku said, has been moved from the second tier to the first tier of the most drought-stricken counties.
“This means our county will get more priority in relief food allocation and other forms of humanitarian support,” said Lenku.
The governor said the county shall also be at the centre of the state and donor community intervention for both short and long-term mitigation measures.
He said so far, according to the National Drought Management Authority, 110,000 households are facing a dire situation and the county’s emergency unit is already appropriating Sh130 million towards drought mitigation measures.
A fortnight ago, Lenku said he dispatched relief food support for 20,000 families drawn from rural, urban and peri-urban areas.
“We continue to release livestock feed pellets as we receive them from our supportive partners. Additionally, we have joined hands with our partners to vaccinate over 400,000 livestock against the PPR (goat plague) disease,” said Lenku.
“I will soon present to this assembly, proposals for budget re-allocation to set aside resources for drought mitigation,” added Lenku.
This, he said, was one of the resolutions reached during one of the meetings between the president and the leadership of the most affected counties.
