The Public Service Cabinet Secretary, Geoffrey Ruku, has explained the government’s move to curb drought conditions in various parts of the country, noting that the government is targeting the seriously affected.

Speaking in an interview with a local media house on Thursday, February 12, 2026, Ruku said that in severely affected areas, the government has ensured food is in high supply.

“The alert phase is the crisis phase, and in the crisis phase, you find that households don’t have enough food. The government is targeting counties that are seriously affected by this drought to ensure that we give maximum support to people,” Ruku said.

On his part, Ruku noted that the government has prioritised the distribution of food supply depending on the severity of the drought conditions, while comparing Embu County to Garissa County.

“We talk about Garissa County, we have distributed about 30,000 bags of rice and over 20,000 bags of beans. If you compare that with Embu County, where we have distributed 8,380 bags of rice and 5,820 bags of beans. So you can see that the government is targeting counties which are seriously affected by this drought to ensure we give maximum support to people,” he added.

Cabinet fund support

His remarks come days after the Cabinet authorised the release of Ksh4.1 billion to scale up drought response interventions in regions affected by worsening drought conditions.

In a cabinet dispatch on Tuesday, February 10, 2026, the cabinet secretaries acknowledged that the drought conditions have deteriorated rapidly since January 2026 following the failure of the October–December 2025 short rains. 

“On the drought in some parts of the country, the Cabinet authorised the release of Ksh4.1 billion to scale up response interventions across affected regions,” the communique read in part.

According to the cabinet, an estimated 3.3 million people are currently facing acute food insecurity, a number that could rise to 3.6 million by June 2026 if urgent intervention is not taken, including in pockets of counties outside the arid and semi-arid areas.

The Cabinet further highlighted the counties that are facing the acute drought conditions, which include Mandera, Wajir, Kwale, and Kilifi counties.

In addition, the Cabinet noted that the four counties are in the Alarm phase, while 12 counties are in the Alert phase, most of them on a worsening trajectory.

Danger of malnutrition

On the other hand, the Cabinet explained that acute malnutrition continues to rise, affecting over 810,000 children and 104,000 pregnant and lactating women, alongside other vulnerable groups.

According to the Cabinet, the additional funding will supplement allocations made in December 2025 and January 2026, which supported relief food, logistics, and limited non-food assistance. Current stocks are expected to last only two to three weeks, underscoring the urgency of further support.