The government has been put on the spot over poor disaster management which has resulted in several deaths in North Rift.
North Rift Anglican Church of Kenya bishops Emmanuel Chemengich (Kitale) and Paul Korir (Kapsabet) said has failed to avert disasters.
“It is a shame that we are still losing Kenyans as a result of famine in this era yet the country produces a lot of food," Chemengich said at the St Luke’s Cathedral in Kitale.
The clergymen were flagging off a lorryful of food and clothing donated by the faithful in the dioceses of Kapsabet, Eldoret and Trans Nzoia for the hunger-stricken victims in Turkana county.
Korir urged the government to come up with measures to counter calamities.
“It is the government’s responsibility to take care of its citizens. The government has no business being on the defensive when its people are succumbing to calamities like famine.”
The bishops also blamed the government for poor policies that do not promote food security, leading to cases of starvation despite bumper harvests every year.
“The government’s poor policies which are unfavourable to the Kenyan farmer are to blame for food insufficiency since farming is no longer profitable,” Chemengich said.
The clergy also said the government’s failure to actualise its water-harvesting dams plan in arid and semi-arid parts of the country is to blame for perennial cases of famine in which many people die.
(Edited by R.Wamochie)
