Kenya mulls measures to mitigate severe drought

The Kenyan government said it was closely monitoring the drought situation in the country, which has left 1.5 million people in need of relief food.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta was briefed on Wednesday that 23 arid and semi-arid counties are facing serious drought.

Kenyatta said in a statement that the national government will realign its budget to address the situation and urged the county governments to come up with counter measures.

Measures undertaken by the government include livestock offtake, provision of supplements and vaccines for livestock, scaling up of school feeding programs and other relief transfers.

The meeting came after Devolution and Planning Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri said last week that both national and county governments have put in place intervention measures.

The poor performance of the 2016 March-May long rains season has resulted in drought that reduced forage and water for livestock and poor crop harvest, especially at the Coast and lower Eastern regions, according to Kiunjuri.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in December warned that Kenya was highly likely to see another drought in early 2017 and a rising food insecurity. Current estimates show some 1.3 million people are food insecure.

"Those most at risk are small-scale herders in the arid and semi-arid lands, where livestock rearing can account for as much as 90 percent of employment and family income," FAO said. Endit