President William Ruto flagged off relief food to the regions in the country faced with severe famine.
He saw off a consignment of 20,000 bags of rice, 20,000 bags of beans, and varied animal feed.
The President stated that the famine situation will be evaluated on a weekly period in order to establish a lasting solution to ending the starvation facing Kenyans in various parts of the country.
“On a weekly basis we will assess the situation and see what this intervention will mean for the people around the country and what additionally can be done as we go into the future,” he said.
A meeting will be held tomorrow with relevant stakeholders and partners and the second dispatch will be delivered later on Friday.
“I have asked our development partners that we will have a meeting on Wednesday so that we can harmonize our approach and make sure that we avoid any duplication in any part of the country and so that we can leverage on the county teams that are assisting in identifying beneficiaries of this food,” Ruto said.
The Head of State further assured pastoralists affected by the drought that they will work with the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) to purchase weak animals from citizens so as to help pastoralists who are unable to feed their livestock.
“We are going to work with the Kenya Meat Commission to make sure that there is an offtake program that will facilitate citizens not to get stuck with livestock when they do not have pasture,” he added.
Ruto thanked the donors and partners for their generous contribution to this cause.
The food aid will be distributed by military trucks to the affected counties in order to ensure that the targeted families benefit.