State food reserves low as famine crisis bites

The national stores have only 731,000 bags of maize yet 4 million bags are needed to save 1.5 million Kenyans from starvation.

The revelation came even as the State reassured that everything was under control.

Devolution Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri and National Treasury Principal Secretary Kamau Thugge said the Government had made plans to feed the hungry when they appeared before a parliamentary committee yesterday.

The only positive news delivered to the Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries committee of the National Assembly was that an inter-ministerial National Drought Steering Committee formed to help the Government fight famine had made an urgent requisition of Sh5 billion to help feed the hungry for the next nine months.

BUY SURPLUS

Mr Kiunjuri and Dr Thugge reassured those facing hunger that money was available to buy food from regions with surplus and transport it to them.

They told the committee that the projections they had received from the Meteorological Department indicated the drought situation could persist for as long as nine months.

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Willy Bett told the committee that whereas the Strategic Food Reserves are expected to hold at least four million bags of cereals, the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) stores were currently holding less than a million bags.

Bett told the committee that his ministry made a requisition of Sh1.3 billion from the National Treasury on Monday to buy more stock from farmers to shore up the reserves.

He also said farmers in the country’s food basket were harvesting their crop, expressing optimism that they will meet the target of providing an extra 34 million bags of maize to the market.

MEASURES LATE

But the late requisition for funds angered MPs, who wondered why the mitigation measures were being employed late yet the signs of the current hunger and drought were detected four months ago.

Committee chairman Adan Mohammed Noor hit out at Government representatives for “exchanging of memos” when starving Kenyans were expecting emergency relief.

There was a moment of confusion at the committee when Kiunjuri contradicted his Principal Secretary in charge of Special Programmes Josepheta Mukobe, insisting that they had received Sh250 million for emergency towards the hunger situation.

Ms Mukobe had told the committee that they had not received any money from the Treasury to control the current hunger situation, insisting the Sh250 million, which the ministry had been using to provide food to those worst affected, was under the normal allocations.