NAIROBI, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta Monday flagged off a consignment of emergency relief supplies to 2.3 million drought-hit Kenyans in 23 arid and semi-arid counties.
Kenyatta expressed his government's commitment to providing both short-term and long-term solutions to drought by investing in community-based resilience and drought preparedness programs.
"Further, in January a total of 508 million shillings (4.47 million U.S. dollars) was disbursed to 169,000 households, translating to a population of 846,885 reached by the cash transfer," Kenyatta said in a statement issued in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.
He emphasized that the government is focused on implementing interventions that will build resilience in all the vulnerable households, diversify livelihoods from drought sensitive activities to drought resilient ones as well as improve on early warning and impact forecasting systems.
Kenyatta said the latest emergency is part of the many interventions that his government has undertaken since September 2021 when he declared the ongoing drought a national disaster and immediately put in place measures to cushion the affected populations.
He pointed out that the government had released 17.7 million dollars to assist the affected households through relief food distribution, water trucking and a livestock offtake program immediately after the declaration of the ongoing drought, a national disaster late last year.
Kenyatta also said from October 2021 to date, a total of 11,250 cattle and 3,200 sheep and goats have been bought by the Kenya Meat Commission from the counties most affected by the drought.
He directed the responsible ministries and agencies to immediately complement the cash transfer program with relief food distribution to overcome challenges such as vulnerable households lacking mobile telephone numbers and devices. ■