No Kenyan should have to die of hunger

Devolution Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri and his Agriculture counterpart continue to assure the country that no Kenyan will die of hunger yet many are on the verge of death.

The two CSs have shown that the Government's preparedness for disasters is poor and haphazard.

Disaster preparedness calls for a number of factors to be considered, among them identifying a community's vulnerability, learning the roles of different agencies, securing resources to mitigate the effects, conducting risk assessments and using statistics to plan.

Risk assessments have been done several times before and the Government fully understands the vulnerability of its people.

The problem is politicising drought and turning the suffering of the people into a way to 'eat' by selling the relief supplies meant for the needy.

Two weeks ago, the Government announced that it would conduct a study and come up with a comprehensive report on the magnitude of the drought.

This ought to have been part of planning for the disaster and in any case, the Meteorological Department had warned that a La Nina phenomenon would develop in the country towards the end of 2016.

Mr Kiunjuri was captured giving out maize and beans in Turkana and other northern parts of the country.

Someone should advise him that the community does not need maize and beans; rather, it needs a faster and well converted type of relief.

The country is staring at conflict among the pastoralists and non-pastoralists across the country due to insufficient food, water and pasture, which are key to human survival.

These cases have been reported in every part of the former eight regions of our country.

Truth is, we have the skills and capabilities to protect our people from these disasters but lack political will and prioritisation of the needs of the people.