• County government accused of failing to come up with mitigating measures such the construction of dams.
•Pastoralists travel to the border of South Sudan in search of pasture and water for their animals
Pastoralists have blamed drought in Turkana on poor governance in the county.
They say the county has failed to put up the correct mitigating measures.
A National Drought Management Agency report shows most of Turkana is experiencing a severe drought and the majority of residents need food aid.
Some 804,000 people out of the 1.2 million in the county face starvation.
Turkana has been without rain for the last 10 months. The last rains fell in the area in April last year.
Pastoralists led by Paul Ewaar, a resident of Nanam ward in Turkana West, complained that the county government receives a lot of funding from the national Treasury but "it has failed them by not providing necessities such as water, roads and relief food".
Ewaar said for many years, water shortage has hit their village, forcing them to traverse insecure places in search of pasture and water for their livestock.
He said the county government "is busy distributing relief food instead of putting up intervention measures".
"If the county government cares for its people, it would have constructed big dams to harvest more water when it rains so that when drought comes, water is not a problem in Nanam. Now we are forced to source water and green pastures in insecure regions at the border of Kenya and South Sudan," he said.
Emmanuel Ekiru said the county has neglected them and urged the leadership to allocate money for the construction of dams. "We travel with our livestock for more than 147 kilometres to look for water and pasture on the Kenya-South Sudan border which is insecure because of cattle rustling," he said.
The pastoralist said the county is"taking advantage of the biting drought to solicit funds from humanitarian organisations and yet they have the potential to mitigate against the drought".
James Erupe of Kakuma accused the county government of having no agenda for pastoralists.
"We don't need money or other facilities, we only need water. We have been promised many times since devolution that the county will construct big dams to curb water problem but it has never been done. We blame our leaders for failing us," he said.
Governor Josphat Nanok has appealed to the national government and humanitarian organisations for relief food. He said the county government had procured 36,000 bags of 50kgs white maize, 10,000 50-kg bags of beans and 10,000 20-litre jerricans of cooking oil.
"The distribution of these food consignments began on February 28 and is expected to reach the targeted 84,923 households. There are 665 food distribution points," he said.
He added, "Regions that have been hard-hit by hunger are Kaeris, Kaaleng’/Kaikor, Lapur and Upper Lake Zone in Turkana North, Kibish, Naanam, Songot, Letea and Lopur in Turkana West; Kerio Delta and upper Kalokol in Turkana Central; Lobei/Kotaruk and Turkwel in Loima, Lobokat, Kalapata and Upper Lokichar in Turkana South and Kapedo, Lokori/Kochodin and Katilia in Turkana East."