• Currently, the drought situation in Kenya has continued to worsen in 29 ASAL counties with at least 4.35 million people projected to be affected by October.
• The sorry state of affairs has been exacerbated by four consecutive failed rain seasons that have also seen over 2.5 million livestock lose their lives.
Image: COURTESY
Narok Senator Ledama Olekina has reached out to Kenyans on Twitter with a proposal to help raise funds for families in drought-hit counties.
The senator said it would be the best birthday gift ever if each of his one million followers contributed Sh10 towards the initiative.
"This drought is really hitting hard … my people in Marsabit, Kajiado, Baringo and Narok county are really in dare need of food. If my Twitter followers can give me a birthday present of Ksh 10.00 per person I could feed a lot of my brothers and sisters," Ledama said.
Currently, the drought situation in Kenya has continued to worsen in 29 ASAL counties with at least 4.35 million people projected to be affected by October.
The sorry state of affairs has been exacerbated by four consecutive failed rain seasons that have also seen over 2.5 million livestock lose their lives.
We have homestead that have completely shut down! The drought has decimated our domestic animals! Our people are knocking on doors asking for food. Just food to survive😭 😭 !!!We must act now or else we are eliminated on this earth @joelenku @LinusKaikai @HonTuya
— Sen. Ledama Olekina (@ledamalekina) November 11, 2022
Media personality and former Radio presenter Ciku Muiruri lend credence to the call and challenged the senator to capitalise on the attention the tweet was receiving from KOT and set up a Pay Bill number.
I think that a call to action requires an immediate way to capitalise on the interest generated by your tweet. By the time you come back with a paybill number, peeps have moved on.
— Ciku Muiruri (@MissCiku) November 11, 2022
If Ledama's initiative sees the light of day, it would go a long way in supplementing ongoing interventions by the government and humanitarian agencies of availing food, water and healthcare aid to the affected communities.
A day ago, the senator took to Twitter and rallied Kenyans to plant trees as part of long term interventions of mitigating climate change.
"This country is littered with carcasses of dead animals. We must take climate change seriously. Plant a tree today," he said.
Ledama's calls echoed those of other elected leaders who are pushing for immediate and lasting solutions on climate change at the ongoing COP27 Summit in Egypt.
Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru called on the international Community to support developing countries by among other things establishing a financing facility to speed up their climate change interventions.
Her Homa Bay counterpart Gladys Wanga made a case for breaking down the climate change conversation so that communities understand and own adaptation interventions.
She advocated for scaling up of financing measures and highlighted the importance of creating space for women's collective participation in locally-led adaptation of climate change solutions.
"Action on adaptation and resilience building has to be on the ground and who is on the ground? County governments," she said.
Governor of Homabay, #Kenya @gladyswanga shares her experience on local climate action at #COP27#ResilientCities@UNCDFLoCAL pic.twitter.com/dqdJF8UUsj
— UNDRR Africa (@UNDRR_Africa) November 11, 2022