Govt. to release Kshs. 5.9B to address ongoing drought situation

The National Treasury will disburse Kshs. 5.9 billion under the new Supplementary Budget to address ongoing drought related-challenges in various parts of the country as million stare at hunger.

The money will be spent to cushion farmers in affected areas by purchasing their livestock through Kenya Meat Commission as well as securing relief food.

The Ministry of Defence has been allocated Kshs. 1.4 billion to finance the livestock uptake programme through KMC while the State Department for Devolution has been allocated Kshs. 1.6 billion for direct mitigation efforts.

Additionally,  Kshs.  2.4 billion has been allocated to the State Department for Social Protection, Senior Citizen Affairs and Special Programmes to cater for relief food to support families affected by drought while Kshs. 900 million will be disbursed to the State Department for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands for drought management activities.

This comes amid calls for urgent intervention by Oxfam East Africa to save millions from the looming hunger crisis facing the region.

According to the organization, 28 million people in the region are likely to face severe food shortage should the much-awaited long-rains fail, a situation which has been worsened by rising food prices globally.

In Kenya, 3.8 million people are at risk of hunger with 1 million people already at risk of starvation.

“We do need to take urgent action now. This year what we are really hoping to do is to avert again a high impact catastrophe in the region. We are really calling for early action and resources to be able to support communities at the centre of this,” said Parvin Ngala, Oxfam East Africa Regional Director.

On Friday, the government released Kshs. 5.7 billion for fertilizer subsidy to cool prices which had escalated to above Kshs. 6000 per 50Kg bag.

The subsidy seeks to provide cheap fertilizer especially to smallholder farmers across the country targeting at least 1 million acres.

The move is expected to improve food production and ease pressure on food reserves.

The government has also allocated a sum of Kshs. 34.4 billion out of the Kshs. 139.8 billion Supplementary Budget to the Government fuel stabilization programme aimed at cushioning Kenyans from high cost fuel prices occasioned by the worsening global energy crisis.

Kenyans across the country have been hit with fuel shortage since last week forcing those with stock to embark on rationing the commodity.

The Kenya Pipeline Company has however reiterated that it has sufficient fuel in their depots countrywide.