- On September 8, President Uhuru Kenyatta declared drought a national disaster.
- The government has distributed relief food to thousands of affected residents.
Image: FILE
The state should shift focus from emergency interventions to programmes that build the resilience of pastoralist communities to combat recurrent hunger in Asal counties.
Senators say the government needs to change tack in fighting food and drought problems that recur every year.
They want the government to build the resilience of the communities of the arid and semi-arid land to adapt to extreme weather events due to climate variability.
“The Ministry of Devolution and the National Drought Management Authority should ensure that strategic measures like repairing of servicing strategic boreholes, wells and water pipes are timely,” Trans Nzoia Senator Michael Mbito said.
The senators’ call comes amid the hunger crisis in various parts of the country, especially the northern region, due to harsh weather conditions.
Mandera, Marsabit, Turkana, Samburu, Isiolo, Wajir and Garissa are some of the counties that have been worst hit by the biting drought and hunger.
Crop and livestock production has been undermined by below-average rain seasons in affected areas with failures of both the 2020 short rain (October-December) and the 2021 long rain (March-May) in some counties.
On September 8, President Uhuru Kenyatta declared the drought a national disaster. The declaration enabled the government to mobilise resources to combat the situation.
The government has distributed relief food to thousands of affected residents.
Last week, Treasury CS Ukur Yatani launched a livestock takeoff programme in Marsabit in a bid to cushion farmers against the severe drought ravaging pastoralist areas in the country.
Speaking on Wednesday, Mbito said the Sh2 billion allocated every year for relief food and other emergency support would have been enough to restore boreholes and wells long before a drought hits.
This, he argued, would have averted hunger and unnecessary human and livestock deaths.
"The National Treasury be encouraged to shift budgetary allocations from environment-degrading coal projects, like Sh1.3 billion allocated to the exploration and mining of coal in the 2021-22 budget, to fighting hunger," Mbito said.
"This money can be used to drill adequate boreholes and wells for communities in drought susceptible areas," he added.
Mbito, who chairs the Senate Health committee, called for the amendment of the Seed and Plant Varieties Act, 2012 to allow farmers to produce locally relevant food, sell and share indigenous seeds.
“Smallholder farmers who produce 75 per cent of the food consumed in the country should be empowered to embrace traditional seeds, which have crucial genetic compositions hence resistance to heat, drought, pests and diseases,” he said.
Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei said it was high time the government explored lasting interventions to fix the recurrent drought and hunger crisis.
“You cannot do the same thing the same way and expect different results. The ministry concerned should be innovative,” the senator said.