Let’s not wait for drought deaths to act

A wild boar stood under a tree and rubbed his tusks against the trunk. A fox passing by asked him why he thus sharpened his teeth when there was no danger threatening from either hunter or hound.

“That may be,” answered the Boar; “but it would never do to have to sharpen my weapons just at the time I ought to be using them.”

This short story teaches us that preparedness for war is the best guarantee of success.

The dry season is here with us again and, unfortunately, the scorching heat has made agriculture in most parts of the country unsustainable. The drought has dried up all crops, and there are people who do not have sufficient food, and this will not be rectified immediately even after the rains return.

Last week, reports emerged that two people have died of starvation in Turkana county. If this has not thrown the country into a spin, I am not sure what else should be done in relation to drought and famine.

We have had a bad vicious cycle where we go through prolonged periods of drought that lead to deaths. Then the rains come and we experience floods, which also take away life and property.

Prior planning in terms of logistics, personnel and infrastructure will avert aggravated damage in case of an emergency. But we seem to fail every other year.

We started the year with the National Drought Management Authority reporting that at least 23 counties were facing drought. Just last week, the NDMA asked the government to set aside Sh34 billion to combat a looming humanitarian crisis.

This should worry us greatly. Firstly, because Kenya is known to be a water-scarce nation. Secondly, there has been a prolonged drought countrywide, and third, because we Kenyans are well known for having collective amnesia of events that always threaten to take us to the brink of the abyss.

But who is discussing this upcoming crisis? We are all busy with political war of words that I discussed in this column last week. Has the Council of Governors, or even Parliament, discussed this issue?

Every year we seem to face the same difficulties during the drought period, with people starving in our very own country.

Very soon, we will start to hear organisations coming together to collect money to feed hungry Kenyans. We will all rally together and do what is humanly possible and ensure that as many people get food.

And when the crisis goes away, we will be back to our lives with no plan on how to combat the crisis next year and the year after that. We must sit back and ask ourselves if we really are a serious lot as Kenyans or we just thrive in being in crises.

We must start asking questions such as what has the government done to prepare for the impending drought. Do we have adequate food supplies? Are we prepared to supply the food to the areas that will need it?

One person dying because of drought in our nation is one too many, and the people responsible must be held accountable. It should not be business as usual for those responsible for planning to avert these situations.

Nature does not care what we believe, and when nature unleashes her fury, we all suffer, strong, weak, rich and poor alike. Let us not be forced to re-invent the food fundraising initiatives that we have had before but seek to learn from the past lessons on water scarcity and our perennial unpreparedness.

Let us put our heads together and deal with the current drought situation and also plan on how to avert future ones. While climate change is real and these natural calamities will continue to haunt us, we must overcome them by planning early.

Political and communications consultant

@MachelWaikenda