Drought agency seeks Sh34bn to avert crisis

Kenya’s drought agency wants the government to set aside Sh34 billion to combat a looming humanitarian crisis following poor short rains last year in arid and semi-arid lands (ASALS) that cut food production by half.

The National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) says 1.1 million people are at risk of starvation following poor distribution of the October-December rains.

The authority says Sh6 billion is needed to ease the pain of livestock deaths, Sh7 billion for steady water supply, Sh3 billion to beef up security and curb conflict in arid areas, Sh4 billion for school meals and Sh7.3 billion for relief food supplies.

The below normal rainfall affected crop production in the agro-pastoral and marginal agriculture zones, with all the areas falling 50 percent below the expected harvest.

“The 2018 October to December short rains were generally late and erratic. Spatial distribution was poor across the country while temporal distribution was poor throughout the season dominated by long dry spells between rainfall episodes,” says Orre Sunya, director at NDMA.

The drought situation, however, is not as severe as it was last year when 2.5 million were affected by dry whether condition.

NDMA says even though overall food security situation in the country has remained stable, majority of households remained in stressed phase.

“The food security situation deteriorated in the pastoral and marginal agriculture areas due to the poor 2018 short rains,” says the agency. It, however, says deterioration was not major due to the positive impacts of the 2018 March – May long rains, which resulted in substantial regeneration of pasture, improved crop production and subsequently improved food and nutrition security situation.