Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa has urged local leaders and well wishers willing to donate food to do so through the County COVID-19 response committee for effectiveness and security purposes.
CS Wamalwa, who was speaking in Trans Nzoia when he distributed relief food to more than 30,000 families on Sunday after River Sabwani broke its banks in three weeks ago, made the statement amid claims that politicians have refused to cooperate with the committee. In Machewa recently, there was a commotion during a food distribution exercise organized by a local politician.
The food donation which includes 2500 bags of maize will go a long way in helping the victims camping at Namanjalala trading centre, Maridadi, Alakara Market, Kiminini, Saboti, and Endebess, all in the vast Trans Nzoia county.
Addressing those affected after launching the distribution exercise in Namanjalala Primary School, CS Wamalwa said that the victims will also receive non-food items from the national government in collaboration with the county government of Trans Nzoia. According to the Kenya Red Cross statistics, 6 people have died in Trans Nzoia County after drowning, following heavy rainfall, 4 from Cherangany, 1 from Saboti and 1 from Kwanza. 5,490 households in Trans Nzoia have been affected by the floods, equating to around 30,000 people.
The Devolution CS noted that at the end of the food distribution exercise each family will have received enough food to last them at least until the flooding subsides and the rains cease in June. He noted this is the third time food has been availed to the County and assured them that the government will continue issuing food to all the affected people and urges members of the public to continue observing the government’s directives on combating the Coronavirus, adding that Counties that have border points like Trans Nzoia, which shares a border with Uganda not to relax in their efforts.
He further revealed that his office will distribute iron sheets once the rain season is over to help residents whose houses have been destroyed in reconstruction. On the issue of dams’ construction, he said the national government will construct dams in Trans Nzoia in order to provide a lasting solution to the perennial problem of floods. “I want to call upon the locals to cooperate with the government when called upon to vacate their lands so that dams can be constructed along the areas affected by floods,” he said.
Trans Nzoia County speaker Joshua Werunga while thanking the government for the relief food, said it’s time for the County leadership to come together and find a lasting solution to the perennial floods problem.
Kwanza MP Ferdinand Wanyonyi whose constituency was badly affected by flooding, asked the government to settle the affected families elsewhere to enable the authorities to find and use land in the flood prone areas for the construction of dams.