Isiolo, Kenya| Abdi Guyo, The governor of Isiolo has declared a county-wide state of emergency as a result of the battering drought situation. The governor said that Isiolo and the larger Northern Kenya region is experiencing its worst drought season in 60 years.
He stressed that the effects of drought in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands(ASAL) areas have been devastating and taken a toll on the local communities. From crops failing to rivers drying up even as livestock get decimated in their thousands.
This, he says, is threatening the very core of livelihood that the local communities depend on for their survival.
In his address, he continued about how dire the situation is as mothers trek for miles in search of drinking water.
This even as children drop out of schools in droves due to hunger and an increase of ‘drought-fueled’ insecurity as pastoralists clash over what little pasture and watering holes left for their livestock.
The newly elected governor estimated that more than 100,000 people are in a serious peril of starvation while some 750,000 shoats, 200,000 heads of cattle and about 40000 camels being in danger of decimation as the drought ravages on unabated.
He has however assured the locals that his administration was on top of things having ‘activated’ its emergency response team.
“We have taken an immediate and deliberate action to address this crisis. Our emergency response teams have provided assistance to those in need by providing food across all the hard-hit areas as a temporary measure of reprieve.”
The governor further asserted that his administration has been working to increase access to water for both human consumption and livestock through sinking of new boreholes, construction of water pans and water trucking from nearby sources.
This, he says, has drained the county financially as “massive financial resources” have been used towards mitigating the dire situation.
Governor Guyo says that despite their efforts, their coffers are overstretched while more people are still in ‘desperate need of food and water’.
He also appealed to the national authorities to continue funding the school feeding programme in order to keep children in school. He emphasized, for good measure, that these needs are urgent and diverse for the county government to address on its own.
He now calls on the National Government, development partners and humanitarian agencies to provide “more financial and technical assistance” to help the local government address the crisis.
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