PM summons team over dry spell

By Ally Jamah

Prime Minister Raila Odinga yesterday convened the National Drought Committee to evaluate and mitigate the looming food crisis.

The PM also summoned the head of the Meteorological Department for an urgent briefing in the wake of threats of La Nina.

World Meteorological Organisation Chief of Data Processing and Forecasting Systems Peter Chen and Director of the Meteorological Department (Kenya) Joseph Mukabana at a workshop in Nairobi, Monday. [PHOTO: Jonah Onyango]

The three-hour meeting held at the Prime Minister’s Office deliberated on intervention measures to cushion the country from shortages of food, water and electricity expected from the resultant dry spell.

The meeting attended by top officials from key Government ministries involved in drought mitigation programmes also reviewed the latest findings amid reports that the situation was grave in Northern Kenya.

The ministries represented included the Internal Security, Special Programmes, Water, Agriculture, Livestock, Education, Transport, and Forestry and Wildlife.

Earler yesterday, the PM called in Meteorological Department Director Joseph Mukabana following predictions the country would experience a dry spell in few months time.

"This La Nina issue is very serious since our economy is agriculture-based and lack of rain will hit the country badly," said Mr Mukabana before he went in to meet the PM.

In its October to December forecast, the Department predicted that most parts of the country would have severely depressed rainfall for the rest of the year and early months of next year, blaming it on La Nina.

Mukabana was expected to advise the PM to direct different arms of the Government including Special Programmes Ministry, to be on the alert.

Lookout for diseases

"The Ministries of Health should also be on the lookout for diseases associated with water scarcity and poor sanitation such as typhoid," said Mukabana.

The country is yet to fully recover from the devastating 2008/2009 drought, which forced the Government to declare a national disaster. Millions of people depended on relief food to survive.

The forecast also warned that pastoralists in Northern and Eastern parts of the country could have trouble feeding their animals as the dry weather wilts away foliage and pasture in many parts of the country.

But the Met boss revealed that Kenya would soon be better placed at predicting severe weather conditions such as floods and droughts, thanks to a new project by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

The project will set up a centre with the latest equipment and highly skilled personnel to predict severe weather patterns in the region.