The National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) and the Turkana County government have started distributing relief food to hundreds of hunger stricken locals.
County Secretary Peter Eripete said that the joint exercise was necessitated by appeals for food for 640,366 affected victims in all the seven sub-counties, who represent 60 per cent of the total population.
Mr Eripete said the relief food is meant to cushion the families from the biting effects of drought after President Uhuru Kenyatta declared it a national disaster.
"The food includes 38,421 bags of maize (50kgs), 7,684 bags of beans (50kgs), and 7,204 jerricans of cooking oil (20 litres) with Turkana North Constituency which is the worst affected being prioritised," the county official said.
Salvation Army Kenya West Territory Development Secretary Major Hudson Muhalia said that the church has already reached out to at least 400 households in Kaeris, Turkana North Sub County, which have received relief food.
He said that they distributed maize, beans, rice, cooking oil, soap and water.
NDMA Turkana County Coordinator Abdikadir Jilo said that pastoral livelihood zones have gone into the alarm drought status, with Turkana North and Turkana East sub-counties being the most hit.
Mr Jilo said that relevant stakeholders in the county are already taking necessary action through immediate response and NDMA has already requested for funds to mitigate the drought.
"As a drought agency, we are accelerating our contingency and response plans. Some of the responses and interventions we are undertaking are water trucking in water stressed areas targeting institutions like schools and health centres. We are procuring collapsible water tanks and plastic tanks that that we will distribute to strategic areas to store water during water trucking services," the NDMA official said.
He said that they are also coordinating county steering groups to ensure they are served with response plans for implementation.
"NDMA is conducting health and nutrition outreaches in the sub-counties that are worst hit. Other stakeholders like the county government and development partners have also moved into action and are responding to the effects of drought across the county," Mr Jilo said.
