Turkana County has been greatly affected by the ongoing drought, with deaths reported due to hunger. But devolution cabinet Secretary Eugine Wamalwa maintains that “We have enough food in our country and no citizen should die from hunger.”
Around 805,000 people out of 1.2 million people in Turkana are faced with starvation as drought persists.
The drought has been caused by lack of rain for the last 12 months as the county’s water tables have gone down drastically.
The last rain was experienced early April last year.
Statistics conducted by the National Drought Management Agency’s (NDMA) shows most of the regions of Turkana County are currently experiencing a severe drought that has affected the majority of residents who are now in need of food aid.
Wamalwa, however, said there is no shortage of food in the country but people are starving because drought is biting in Turkana, Mandera, Marsabit and Isiolo counties.
“We are here in Turkana because of the ongoing drought to work closely with the county government and other humanitarian organisations for mitigation,”.
The CS spoke on Friday while flagging off trucks of food in Turkana.
Wamalwa said the National government has enough food to feed affected victims as he distributed 7,000 bags of maize and 5,000 bags of beans.
He urged the county government to collaborate with national government to ensure distribution is done effectively and food reaches all the affected victims.
“We have to see how we can complement that by increasing water trucking so that where is completely dry, residents can access clean water,” he said.
Wamalwa said the livestock have been greatly affected a reason that has made Turkana herders move to Uganda in search of water and pastures.
He said they are working closely with the Ugandan government under the cross border programme to ensure they build peace between communities living along the borders.
Wamalwa said the government has plans to make sure arid regions are stable and residents can be able to irrigate their farms for agribusiness through the help of government by building of dams that can be able to increase water storage.