Mandera County needs help urgently to save 500,000 lives

A young boy quenches his thirst as goats scramble for water at Wangaidhan water point in Mandera West Sub County on March 14th, 2021. [Boniface Okendo,Standard]

Fellow Kenyans, I passionately appeal for help for families in northern Kenya who do not know where their next meal will come from.

In Mandera, just like in the neighbouring Marsabit, Wajir, Tana River and Garissa among others counties, there is acute water shortage as drought reaches its peak.

All water pans have dried up and the grim picture painted by World Meteorological Organisation forecasts a fifth successive year of failed rains. For over two years majority of these areas have not received rainfall.

Mandera County Government offers first line of response but is seeking interventions to compliment its efforts to save human and animal lives. We appeal to President William Ruto to ask Kenya Meat Commission to start buying animals through the livestock offtake programme.

The drought situation is going from bad to worse and the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance is about 500,000. This translates to half of the population of Mandera County. The drought is caused by four consecutive failed rain seasons since 2020.

We humbly appeal to President Ruto to declare drought a national disaster to help trigger life-saving interventions and to cushion our people from hunger, acute water shortage and loss of livestock.

Mandera County Government is offering emergency response through water trucking and food aid for vulnerable families in conjunction with the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA), and donors, but the situation is demanding and requires injection of more resources and cash transfers.

We supply 1.8 million litres of water daily to 192 villages daily.

The drought is at its peak and we will require up to four million litres of water daily to save people and animals over the next 30 days.

We will require at least Sh75 million to cater for water trucking, fuel subsidy, borehole repairs and maintenance and water tanks.

Animal diseases

Our people face acute food insecurity and high malnutrition rates. Decline in livestock prices, increase in cereal prices (a 50kg bag costs between Sh4,500 and Sh5,000 due to high demand for livestock feeds) and the general increase in prices of all food commodities undermines the purchasing power of households.

Livestock mortality is being reported across the county due to starvation, diseases, drought-related deficiency and endemic animal diseases.

The cumulative livestock deaths in September stands at 365,283 cattle, 160,721 camels, 495,169 shoats and 29,314 donkeys from January 2022.

In education, we will need to increase food rations in our 312 Early childhood education centres with 23,400 pupils to forestall malnutrition among learners by providing breakfast and lunch. Schools will reopen when drought is at its peak and this calls for urgent contingency measures, including water supply and complimenting food needs of 41 boarding schools in the county.

There are currently some 61,000 households receiving cash transfers from various donors and the NDMA.

This, however, does not cover all vulnerable families. An estimated additional 22,000 households need to be targeted with cash transfers for the next three months and this totals to averagely Sh17,000 per household of six people.

Acute malnutrition in children under five years stands at 29 per cent. A total of 108,735 children suffer from malnutrition. The malnutrition trend is due to decline in milk production, reduced milk consumption at household level, poor dietary diversity, poor child feeding practices and reduced food intake.

The nutrition situation is expected to get bad with worsening drought and food security situations.

Another 15,216 estimated caseloads of pregnant and lactating women require treatment. The situation is alarming and we need to act together urgently.

Mr Mohamed is the Governor of Mandera County