Food security threat as mature locusts prepare to lay eggs in Northwestern Kenya

The food security threat in the country remains high following the movement of another full-grown swarm of desert locusts.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, the current swarms breeding will form from mid-June onwards, coinciding with the start of the harvest season.

Mature swarms in the country moved further North in the Northwestern counties of Marsabit and Turkana to lay eggs in the past week.

The organization added that only some of the hatching and a few hopper bands have been detected.

The desert locusts in Arabia, Kenya and Ethiopia are also predicted to reach the eastern part of the Sahel in Eastern Chad starting in about a month's time if they migrate before the summer rains commence.

Their threats might also change in the coming weeks based on rainfall, winds and the locust situation in Arabia and East Africa.

Countries have been urged to be on high alert and invest in preparedness to handle the looming out threat.

The locusts invaded Kenya on December 2019, after crossing the Somalia border.

Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and South Sudan have also been invaded by destructive locusts.

The government launched several mechanisms to curb its effects but little has been achieved.

Several countries including Kenya are facing the Coronavirus pandemic, doubled by floods due to the ongoing short rains, hence diverting the attention.

The Council of Governors had urged the national government to fight the spread of desert locusts, even as it battles the coronavirus.

CoG Chairman Wycliffe Oparanya said the national government seems to have focused most of its efforts on fighting Covid-19 at the expense of the war on locusts.

The ongoing short rains have also worsened the situation and hampered the fight of the virus in some parts of the country.

Devolution CS Eugene Wamalwa briefed the nation on Wednesday regarding the ongoing rains where he announced 237 people have lost their lives from the floods.

Wamalwa said that affected households in the country due to floods has also increased to 161,000.

At the same time, the CS has urged Kenyans who are living close to the rivers and to the areas prone to mudslide and landslides to be cautious.