The government has set up two new desert locust control bases in Mandera and Witu area of Lamu county.
Government spokesperson Cyrus Oguna said on Tuesday that this brings the total number of control bases in the country to eight.
Other bases are in Isiolo, Masinga in Embu, Marsabit, Lodwar in Turkana, Wajir and Garissa county.
He said the Mandera base will address logistical issues in the northern region while the Witu base is to serve the coastal region.
He said the second wave of desert locusts has so far invaded nine counties of Garissa, Wajir, Marsabit, Kitui, Lamu, Taita Taveta, Kilifi, Tana River and Mandera.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the desert locusts invaded Kenya from a neighbouring country for a second time on November 9.
The pests first invaded the country on December 28, 2019 in Mandera county and later moved to other parts of the country.
Oguna said the government moved with speed and successfully contained the first wave by May.
He added that the situation has since been calm except for a few and less mobile remnants of the pests along the Suguta Valley in Samburu county which were being contained by ground control teams.
The government has undertaken to control the locusts by deploying 100 National Youth Service personnel in the Witu base to boost ground control and surveillance efforts along the Coast region.
Other interventions, Oguna said, include 160 extension officials including local scouts who have been trained on surveillance of the locusts’ movements.
These were drawn from Turkana, Marsabit, Isiolo, Samburu, Mandera, Garissa, and Tana River counties.
“If left unchecked, locusts are known to destroy farmlands in huge proportions thereby compromising the country’s food security. As a government, we are watchful not to let such a situation to happen and has deployed necessary interventions to limit the further infestation and spread to neighbouring counties,” he said.
The government is working with the county governments, Kenya Defence Forces and the Desert Locust Control Organisation for Eastern Africa among other stakeholders.
Edited by Henry Makori
