Written By Ramadhan Kambi
The continued drought ravaging the country has now forced relief agencies to give out an appeal for government intervention.
The Kenya Red Cross Society, one of the agencies has asked the government to intervene and rescue more than 3.1 million Kenyans affected by the drought disaster.
The agency say the situation in the country is alarming.
Authorities said the situation on the ground was bad as drought victims have no food to eat due to the prolonged drought that has lasted for over three years.
Currently, reports indicate that more than 1.5 million livestock has died as a result of the drought and the number is rising each day due to lack of pasture and water.
Dr. Michael Ayiabei the Acting head of Disaster Management at Kenya Red Cross Society said countrywide the situation is bad and in the Coast counties like Lamu, Tanariver Kilifi, Taita Taveta, Kilifi and Kwale have been hardly hit by the disaster.
Speaking during relief food distribution exercise donated by Shree Sanatan Dhaharam Sabha organization from Nairobi at Mlilo in Taita Taveta County he said the county at times also suffers floods.
The distribution exercise targeted Mlilo area, Kamtonga, and two centers in Taveta Sub County which have been highly affected by the drought.
“Today we continue interventions of persons who have been affected by drought and we are in Mlilo in Taita Taveta County as you know this drought, we are talking about 3.1 million people affected even though at times this county is always mistaken that it’s doing fairly well but we forget there are some pockets which are badly off and this is one of them,” he said.
Ayiabei said even though there were little rains in Tanariver which recharged some of the pans and rivers but larger sections of Kilifi and Kwale are bad.
He said other counties which have also been highly affected in the north rift are Turkana, Baringo, West Pokot, and Marsabit which also witnessed some storms of dust.
“Besides people not having food their shelters are getting affected again, should we have rains we expect floods to hit the same areas again,” he said.
The head of disaster management said the entire North-Eastern region has also been affected by the drought.
“All that we can say is to appeal for support for food to support what has been done, we have already provided relief food to over 38,000 households, we have provided cash support which is unconditional to over 18,000 households,” he said.
Ayiabei said they continue praying for support so as to help the households to withstand the tough time and expressed hope that some rains would come soon.
He said every other day there is no pasture and rain more animals are getting weak daily making it difficult to access water adding that the numbers rise each day.
As Kenya Red Cross he said they have been doing interventions including providing protein pellets so as to save the animals from dying.
During the relief distribution in Taita, Taveta locals said the situation was worsening each day as there was no food and there are cases of conflicts emerging between humans and wildlife.
Elephants are reportedly destroying water pipes making it a challenge for the locals to access water.
OP Bij a representative of Shree Sanatan Dharam Sabha organization Nairobi who donated the relief food for 1000 families said they managed to donate more than 500 tons of relief food donated to different areas.
Bij said apart from Taita Taveta they have also been to Makindu Mtito Andei, Meru, among other areas to support those who have been affected by the drought.
He said the donation was voluntarily done by the members of Sabha.
“It’s a very dry area am sure there is a lot of famine around here any food going to this area is going to help the people definitely even if it’s small because if we a distributing for 1000 households it means there are more people affected who have not been reached, I would request the other organizations to come and do the same to this area so that they can be relieved,” he said.
Mwanjala Mwawasi a resident of Mlilo area said the major challenge is to access food, water as the area was completely dry and has not received rains for the last three years.
He said currently elephants are really causing havoc in the area destroying water pipes daily making it difficult for them to access water.
“We are very happy to get relief food from the Kenya red Cross at this time when people are in dire need of food, the situation is bad and without intervention, people could lose lives,” he said.
Sofiline Bonge mother of eight children said as women they have challenges in getting food and are forced to take one meal a day.
She said due to the destruction of pipes by elephants’ women are forced to walk for a long distance in search of water and manage only to get one jerrican which is only used for cooking.
“We are not able to take bath because the water we get is too little, getting food is also a nightmare because the area is completely dry,” she said.
Gift Nyambu Chief Paranga location in Taita Sub County said the area is normally hit by drought and since they border the wildlife during rains the animals destroy their crops.
He thanked the Kenya red Cross and donors for supporting them during the drought season and called for more support to prevent loss of lives.
Bernard Irenge Chief Mwachabo said they have not harvested anything in the last four seasons and the drought has really hit them hard.
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