Kenya: The report that projects a shortage of 10 million bags of maize next year should not only be taken seriously, but lead to the taking of concrete action that will ensure no Kenyan lives are lost to famine.
The fact that the report is produced from an assessment carried out by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) gives it a level of unequalled credibility that the government would ignore at the peril of its vulnerable communities, especially those living in northern Kenya.
It is unfortunate that these vulnerable communities are the very ones that are perennially locked in inter-communal violence which makes it nearly impossible to implement development projects with the potential to slay the dragon of famine at its roots.
Yet, local leaders have no choice but to work tirelessly to find a permanent solution to the sporadic flares of violence that leave scores dead and wounded in addition to destroying property valued at millions of shillings.
The result is that even once prosperous families are reduced to penury and are forced to rely on food - assistance from the government and donors - both local and foreign. Regrettably, the number of violent skirmishes and their lethal nature seems to have gone up following the general election that gave birth to county governments.
Needless to say, this sorry situation was not the ideal envisaged by the framers of the country’s constitution which ushered in devolved governments. The rationale behind the devolution of functions is to bring public services nearer to the people not to heighten their traditional animosity fuelled by years, and generations, of competing for natural resources - particularly water.
It is instructive, for example, that the latest flare up between the Pokot and the Turkana was revolved around the ownership and use of the Turkwel River which runs along the natural boundary between the two communities.
The hope is that the local county leaders will take on their mantle of responsible leadership in these areas and work with the national government to avert deaths from the expected food deficits in 2014.
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