President William Ruto on Friday morning received over Sh542.2 million worth of donation funds for the drought response.
The cheques from different financial institutions were presented at the State House by the National Drought Response Steering Committee which is chaired by Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa.
Co-operative Bank contributed Sh150 million, which was the highest.
Kenya Defence Forces donated Sh130.2 million which was presented by CS for Defence Aden Duale.
Equity Bank presented its Sh120 million cheque while Kenya China economic and Trade Association Sh10 million
Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), on the other hand, donated Sh100 million, Middle East Bank gave out Sh20 million and Dawoodi Bohri Bank gave a Sh 10 million cheque.
Another cheque of Sh29,588 from other deposits was presented to the President as well as Sh 2 million from Middle East Bank.
The donations were made to the president during a brief ceremony at State House.
Early this week, DP Gachagua asked Kenyans of goodwill to donate towards the kitty whose funds will go towards alienating drought-stricken families across 23 counties.
On Monday, he announced that the National Drought Response Steering Committee had released the Pay Bill number through which the funds will be channelled.
Gachagua said the funds can be sent via Pay Bill 880990 with the sender's name as the account number or via National Drought Mitigation Appeal Fund, Kenya Commercial Bank, Riverside Branch, ACC. NO. 1305486137.
"The Pay Bill number applies to Safaricom's M-Pesa, Airtel Money, and Telkom’s T-Kash subscribers. We thank Kenyans and all our friends for their continued support towards this course," Gachagua said in a statement via Twitter.
No official data has been released on the number of people who have died due to drought but official statistics say 2.5 million livestock have died.
Last month, Ruto formed a National Drought Response Steering Committee to be chaired by Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa.
The committee's formation was necessitated by the need to institutionalise the framework for mobilizing additional resources to address the worsening drought impacts.
Its primary interventions, according to President Ruto, will be in the areas of food, water, livestock, health, wildlife, energy, education, security, forestry, agriculture, and irrigation.
Members of the committee include, among others; Dr James Mwangi, CEO, of Equity Bank Group Kenya PLC, Nasim Devji, CEO, of Diamond Trust Bank, Shamaz Savani, CEO, African Banking Corporation Bank (ABC), Paul Rushdie Russo, CEO of Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Group Rebecca Mbithi, CEO, Family Bank Kenya Limited, Jane Karuku, CEO, East African Breweries Limited, Joshua Chepkwony, CEO, Jamii Telecommunication Limited and Crispin Acholla, CEO, British American Tobacco.
Other members of the committee will include: Dr Asha Mohammed - Secretary-General, The Kenya Red Cross, Edwins Mukabanah, CEO, Kenya Bus Services Management, Patricia Mugambi Ndegwa, Impact Philanthropy Africa, Krishma Jitesh Chavda, ISHA Foundation, and Hared Hassan (Lt.) Col., National Drought Management Authority.
