Deputy President William Ruto has said there is no cause for alarm in the country, despite the drought that has hit least 12 Counties in the country. DP Ruto has revealed that the government has released money to deal with the drought in the affected Counties and that the governments, both the national and County governments, have put in place measures to counter the situation. “The government of Kenya has approved Kshs 2 billion to be spent within this week in water tracking, making sure that boreholes and water pans are working for food supply through the Ministry of Devolution, for logistics and also through the Ministry of Agriculture for the necessary interventions to be carried out,” he said.
Speaking to the press after meeting four Cabinet Secretaries and other government officials, DP Ruto said the first line of intervention has been done by County governments and the move to action by the national government is the second line of intervention. He said the government is progressively trying to move away from relief interventions to resilient interventions in order to deal with repetitive disasters like droughts. He cited that in that line, the state has promised livestock insurance so that pastoralists can manage the condition of their cattle in a predictable way and if pasture gets depleted they have the resources to buy feed for their livestock.
On his part, Agrioculuytre CS Mwangi Kiunjuri said the government has set out long term interventions to deal with any future challenges. He said the government is targeting water harvesting strategies, “To this far, we are targeting harvesting of 100,000 cubic
Following reports that deaths have been reported as a result of the drought, the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) CEO James Oduor said the deaths can’t be linked to drought at the moment and they may be cases of sickness and other issues. The Counties