More than 55, 000 people in Kieni, Nyeri County are in dire need of food as drought persists in the country, the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) has said.
For the last five seasons, farmers drawn from the constituency which is the food basket of the county have not realized a harvest due to lack of rains and irrigation water.
According to the report commissioned by the county coordinator Lordman Lekalkuli, the most affected areThegu, Mugunda and the lower parts of Mwiyogo wards where animals have started to die due to lack of pasture.
A survey in some of the affected villages found animal carcasses while river streams have long dried up, with the residents only hope being the start of the short rains.
“For four years we have not received any rains, therefore we rely on what we have earned from our manual work which is hard to come by given there is nothing to cultivate in the farms,” said Ms Lilian Wanjiru, a Kieni resident.
She added that they were also struggling to find drinking water and reserve for their domestic uses.
Kieni residents are largely horticulture and dairy farmers and now have turned to sell their animals to sustain their livelihoods.
“The animals are emaciated such that those who want to off take the cattle for instance are buying them at Sh500 maximum which is a loss since we cannot spend on food for more than a day,” said Ms Rose Kamau, a resident in Thing’aru village.
Ms Kamau said that most of her neighbours were selling their animals to afford dairy feeds for the rest of the herd but realized it was not sustainable.
“The animals are now dying one after the other… we hope the short rains start soon,” she said.
According to the NDMA report, due to resource shortage, about 2, 500 animals have migrated from parts of Laikipia, Isiolo and Samburu to Kieni into Mt Kenya forest which could lead to resource conflict.
“As the meteorological department had predicted, Kieni will remain dry through this month, forage and water resources are likely to deteriorate further resulting to a decline in livestock productivity… as a result livestock prices will remain below normal,” read the report.
It further stated that due to poor production of food across the country, there was low stock of cereals held by traders leading to high prices.
“The scenario is expected to worsen in the coming months and we will witness a prevalence of children at risk of malnutrition to increase fue to adverse drought effects,” the report stated.
