Legislators sound alarm on prolonged drought in ASAL

Senators from the Arid and Semi Arid Lands (ASAL) counties have sounded the alarm that lives of more than 5.5 million people in the regions are in danger as a result of the ongoing drought which has continued to leave a trail of destruction and urged the government to immediately declare the situation a national disaster.

Addressing the press on the sidelines of the ongoing Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) post election seminar for the Senate in Mombasa, 14 senators from the affected areas were concerned that the drought has led to loss of nearly 70 percent of livestock for lack of pasture and water in the affected communities dependent on livestock, warning that the fate of the remaining livestock is scary.

“The drought is as a result of failed rains for the last four years if nothing is done the remaining livestock will soon be wiped out by drought,” said Mandera Senator Ali Roba, on behalf of fellow senators.

National disaster

Leaders were concerned that despite the severity of the drought in ASAL regions, the Government of Kenya has refused to declare the drought a national disaster, a situation they said has added misery in the affected regions as non state actors have not mobilised resources to respond to the drought on a magnitude commensurate to the severity of the situation on the ground.

“In this regard, we request the Government to, with immediate effect; declare the on-going drought a national disaster in order for the right response to be prompted… Given the fact that Kenya was declared a middle-income country, donors and other non-state actors are not willing to respond to the drought crisis unless the Government declares the drought a national disaster. We call on non-state actors and other well-wishers to come to the aid of these affected populations urgently as the severity of the drought has pushed the affected communities to the brink of famine and starvation,” Samburu Senator Steve Lelegwe reckoned.

Lelegwe added that despite public pronouncements for assistance to drought affected counties, that assistance has not been commensurate with the severity of the situation on the ground.

Off-take programme

The senators said the Government’s relief food distribution and livestock off-take programs were a welcome relief but their impact in addressing the crisis has been inadequate.

“Article 43 (1) (c) of the Constitution of Kenya states clearly that every Kenyan has the right to be free from hunger and to have adequate food of acceptable quality. The right to food is also part of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). It therefore is the responsibility of the Government to save lives of its Citizens from the on-going drought which has in addition to destroying livelihoods of affected communities, causing scarcity of food with most people unable to get a proper single meal a day to meet their nutrition requirements.”

The leaders were of the opinion that the right response to this drought crisis would include use of the United Nations (UN) standard food portions per head for the response to be considered an effective response to the drought in order to avert famine. They described occasional food distribution from the Government as extremely insufficient to save lives and further asked the Government to come up with proper mitigation measures to ensure no lives are lost due to famine and starvation.

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