- Ruto created the committee in November last year through a Gazette notice.
- Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa announced early last month that they had so far raised Sh650 million.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
The National Steering Committee on drought response has released a food distribution program in the nine mostly hit counties considered to be in the “alarm phase”.
The four-day exercise will begin on March 7 and targets identified households in Isiolo, Mandera, Marsabit, Turkana, Kajiado, Kilifi, Kitui, Samburu and Wajir.
A total of 55, 400 households out of a population of 339, 142 will benefit from the program.
The committee has indicated that each of the hampers to be distributed is 22 kilograms.
In Isiolo, at least 5, 158 households from three sub-counties of Barbatulla, Isiolo and Mertui will benefit while in Samburu 7,403 households will be supplied with the food in the exercise set for March 7.
The distribution program will be carried out in Marsabit with 9,442 households and Turkana (4,711) on March 8 while Kajiado (6,325), Wajir (6,753) and Mandera (7,207) will be on March 9.
The exercise will be conducted in Kitui (5,615) and Kilifi (5,449) simultaneously on March 10.
Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa announced early last month that they had so far raised Sh650 million towards the drought mitigation program which is two months since President William Ruto formed the team.
Ndegwa stated that at least 85,000 people from some five counties had already received food donations from the task force interventions dubbed Wakenya Tulindane campaign.
“We have adopted the name Wakenya Tulindane, which we believe symbolises the essence of the campaign; to safeguard our people and our country from effects of drought through both short and long-term measures," Ndegwa said.
A report from National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) puts Embu, Narok, Taita Taveta, Makueni, Meru, Nyeri and Lamu Counties in the alert drought phase.
The drought continues to worsen in 21 of the 23 Arid and Semi-Arid counties.
This has been attributed to the four failed consecutive rain seasons and the late-onset and poorly distributed 2022 short rain season.
The number of people in need of humanitarian assistance currently stands at 4.35 million based on the 2022 Long Rains Food and Nutritional Security Assessment Report.