- Governor Lomorukai has said Children in ECDE centres are in dire need of relief food support.
- He said the rising rate of malnutrition, with the Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) in Turkana is above 34 per cent.
Image: HESBORN ETYANG
The severe drought has affected the enrollment of ECDE learners, Turkana Governor Jeremiah Lomorukai has said.
Lomorukai said children in ECDE centres are in dire need of relief food support.
He deplored that the drought situation is at alarming stage and has affected nearly 800,000 residents.
“Enrollment in ECDE centre is pegged on availability of food which means with the drought so severe and affecting nearly the entire county, learning has been affected,” Lomurkai said.
Lomorukai spoke on Monday when he met with a delegation of the National Early Childhood Executive Committee at the county headquarter in Lodwar.
He said the rising rate of malnutrition, with the Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) in Turkana is above 34 per cent.
The committee is visiting the county to assess the impact of drought on ECDE in Kakuma Refugee Camp and Kalobeyei Settlement.
Lomorukai urged the committee to extend the assessment to schools of the host community to get the magnitude of the drought and how it has affected the education sector.
“Out of a population of 1.5 million, more than 800,000 people have been affected by the drought. A quarter of this number is in dire need of help and we need help for ongoing drought emergency relief efforts by the county,” he said.
Lomorukai informed the committee of plans to procure additional food, with Sh300 million set aside for emergency response.
He said the drought in Turkana was severe and appealed for support from the national government, development partners and other humanitarian organisations.
He said the county emergency response was ongoing in different areas of Turkana and promised to visit areas worst affected to coordinate the efforts.
The team was comprised representatives from the Ministry of Education, COG and Unicef.
The governor appreciated the support from Unicef in the sector and on children protection programmes.
Valary Akinyi, the chairperson of the Council of Governors Committee on Education said the visit was part of the COGs support to counties to strengthen capacity in basic education.
She said the prevailing drought had affected delivery of education, and the team, was keen to collect information on its extent.
“Education has to continue despite the drought and that COG will work closely with counties to boost service delivery under counties’ mandate on education and in other critical sectors,” she said.
She said the team will hold a briefing session with the county on the findings of the field visits.
In the meeting, it was announced that Turkana had been chosen as the venue of next year’s National ECD Stakeholders’ Conference to be held in July.
Francis Kidake, officer in Charge of UNICEF Lodwar said the Organisation was focused on the ECDE sector and would work to ensure host and refugee children received services.
He appreciated Turkana as one of the counties with ECDE policy and promised to partner with the county and other organisations to reduce the vulnerability of school children during the drought.