The Senate has demanded more comprehensive and accurate information from the government regarding its response to the worsening drought situation across Kenya’s arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs).

Appearing before the Senate plenary on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, Cabinet Secretary for East African Community Affairs, ASALs and Regional Development, Beatrice Askul, assured lawmakers that the government remained committed to protecting the lives and livelihoods of communities affected by prolonged dry conditions.

She assured the House that national authorities were working closely with county governments, development partners and humanitarian agencies to ensure that drought response efforts remain coordinated and responsive to the evolving humanitarian situation.

She acknowledged that the prevailing drought has had severe consequences for vulnerable communities across affected regions.

Intensified hardships

She added that drought conditions have intensified hardship through acute shortages of water for both domestic and productive use, rising food and nutrition insecurity and a steady decline in livestock and crop production systems that rely heavily on rainfall.

“The current response measures are designed to cushion affected communities, protect lives and safeguard core livelihood assets. These interventions are primarily relief oriented and focus on enhancing household coping capacity, minimizing asset depletion and preventing irreversible losses,” Askal stated.

She explained that the Ministry, through the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) is implementing a series of drought response interventions funded under the National Drought Emergency Fund and with support from the European Union.

Askul further told senators that the ministry had disbursed unconditional cash transfers to 133,800 vulnerable households in eight arid counties Turkana, Marsabit, Wajir, Mandera, Garissa, Isiolo, Samburu and Tana River under the Hunger Safety Net Programme (HSNP), a flagship initiative under the Vision 2030 development blueprint.

The interventions are supported by a budget allocation of Ksh 265,718,782.90.

The CS further revealed that out of the Ksh 4.1 billion allocated by the National Government for drought response, the NDMA had received Ksh 350 million to support critical water sector interventions, repair and maintenance of strategic boreholes, food security assessments and coordination of drought response activities.

As of February 2026, an estimated 3.3 million people across the 23 ASAL counties are faced with lack of food. The situation is expected to deteriorate further in the coming months according to the report by the CS.

Projections indicate that the number of food insecure people could rise to approximately 3.68 million by June 2026, a significant increase within a four month period.

Amazon Kingi’s ruling

However, senators raised concerns about the adequacy and reliability of the information presented, arguing that the data did not fully reflect the reality on the ground.

He directed the Cabinet Secretary to go back and prepare more detailed and accurate responses before appearing again before the Senate.

“CS, listening to the concerns raised by the Hounourable Senators clearly, your responses to their questions remain unsatisfactory and therefore the Senate will communicate a date when you will come back to this plenary for purposes of giving satisfactory responses to all the concerns that have been raised,” Kingi ruled.