The Kenyan government has partnered with insurers to make record insurance payouts for pastoral households facing historic drought. “This is the biggest livestock insurance payout ever made under Kenya’s agricultural risk management program and the most important as well, because without their livestock, pastoralist communities would be devastated,” said CS Bett. Nearly Ksh 215 million in insurance payouts across six counties will be made by the end of February through the Kenya Livestock Insurance Program.
Payments will be pegged to measurements of forage conditions made via satellite for each area, and will range from Ksh 1,450 per pastoral household in areas that have suffered modest losses Ksh 29,400 in areas where drought is particularly severe. The average payment is around Ksh 17,800 per pastoral household, directly reaching about 100,000 people.
Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries has developed the Kenya Livestock Insurance Program with technical assistance from the International Livestock Research Institute as part of the national strategy to end drought emergencies.
“This year we have scaled up the Kenya Livestock Insurance Program to include over 9000 more pastoralists in the four counties of Mandera, Marsabit, Isiolo, and Tana River,” said CS Bett.
He added that KLIP has demonstrated its usefulness as a drought response mechanism hence it shall be opened to other ASAL counties.
