A Kenyan government official on Thursday said over 1.4 million people in Kenya are currently at risk of hunger, starvation, and potentially face acute food insecurity, reported The Standard.
During a media briefing in Nairobi, Government Spokesman Cyrus Oguna said that the country is committed to ensuring that no Kenyan dies from lack of food as a result of the looming drought.
“The government assures Kenyans that the situation is firmly under control and that there should be no cause to panic. As a country, we have enough food stocks to support the population,” the Kenyan government’s spokesperson said.
He said the national government along with county governments of the affected counties has begun closely monitoring areas that may require an immediate response.
He noted that the government is considering having a provisional budget of 2.28 billion shillings (about 21 million U.S. dollars) for the provision of relief for drought victims.
Oguna added that Marsabit, Tana River, Isiolo, and Turkana are already experiencing drought-like conditions. He urged farmers in areas where good rainfall is expected to take advantage of the rains and grow the correct crop variety for their zones as advised by agricultural extension officers.
The Kenyan official noted that the overall food security in the country is good but the poor performance of the short rains in the months of October-December 2020 marginally compromised the national food and nutrition security.
He said that with the performance of the 2021 long-rains season forecasted to be poor, the food security situation is likely to worsen and the number of those in need of humanitarian support likely to increase towards August.
Oguna warned that the looming drought and depressed rains might adversely affect the government’s efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.
Kenya has reported 135, 042 corona virus cases so far. The death toll from the virus has reached 2,167.
