NAIROBI, April 3 (NNN-KNA) — At least 120,000 households in Kenya’s Turkana County are currently facing threats posed by a prolonged drought.
That translates to over 640,000 people in the county according to the chief officer of economic planning Jeremiah Apalia.
Speaking during a meeting held to review the second generation CIDP and prepare the 2023-2027 version, said about 35 percent of the animal population is also affected.
He said mitigation against drought in the expansive Turkana County will only succeed upon the adoption of a properly coordinated stakeholder engagement mechanism where partners’ roles and contribution is properly defined.
He lauded the National Drought Management Authority in Turkana for timely dissemination of the drought outlook situation which is assessed at an alarm stage.
He urged the stakeholders to liaise with NDMA in driving drought response agenda during the time of need.
Apalia added that the process of procuring relief food for the 640,366 most at-risk populations through the directorate of Disaster Risk Management was nearing completion alongside other interventions.
Apalia asked development partners to prioritize the health sector in drought response due to the huge number of vulnerable children at risk of falling below the recommended nutrition threshold as the County scales the rollout of a contingency plan to ensure livelihoods are not threatened further.
The assistant director for Drought response at NDMA Joseph Lotwel said that his organization had placed mechanisms in place for mapping of all stakeholders in the drought mitigation and response interventions and develop a database to be used as a one-stop source of information.
Dr. Benson Longor, the Director of Veterinary services listed ongoing distribution of 3,846 bags of supplementary animal feeds, replenishing of the 8 acres of Natemito farm for use as rangeland in Songot Ward, and continuous livestock disease surveillance as some of the County led responses against the situation.
Director of Water services Tito Ochieng’ explained the targeted intervention by the County water team with respect to routine undertaking of operations and maintenance of broken down boreholes and water tracking as sector intervention. — NNN-KNA