Sh450m set aside to buy animals hit by drought
The government has set aside Sh450 million to buy animals from pastoralists in drought-stricken counties.
Public Service, Gender, Senior Citizen’s Affairs and Special Programmes Principal Secretary Micah Powon said the animals bought under the emergency government off-take programme are meant to provide relief meat to famine-stricken families. It will also lessen the burden of pastoralists in their search for pasture and water.
The programme will assist people adversely affected by the prolonged drought in 23 counties. About 2.1 million Kenyans have been affected.
Speaking to the media in Pser, Mr Powon said besides declaring the drought a national disaster, the government has set aside Sh2 billion to fight hunger and forestall a humanitarian crisis.
From the Sh2 billion, the PS said, Sh350 million went to the Water ministry to truck the precious fluid to drought-affected counties and Sh450 million to the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) to buy weak, emaciated animals for slaughter.
Relieve pressure
The livestock buying, Mr Powon said, will enable livestock keepers to salvage some cash from their stock, support families with cash to meet their food needs and relieve pressure on scarce water and pasture.
The take-off programme will be executed jointly with the Kenya Red Cross Society and KMC.
The PS asked pastoralists to embrace the programme and sell their stocks before they die.
He also revealed that the government was scaling up relief food distribution to vulnerable people. The food distribution, Mr Powon said, is meant to avert an emergency food situation in the worst affected areas of the country as the effects of the drought escalate.
The PS said the affected residents will receive assorted foodstuffs as well as cash as long as the dry spell persists.
Reducing poverty
The government, Mr Powon added, is doing its best to mitigate the effects of the drought by mobilising all the resources at its disposal.
The goal is to continue reducing poverty, hunger, and vulnerability in the focus counties, resulting in better and more sustainable safety nets for poor and vulnerable households, he said. BY DAILY NATION
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