It will take at least 2 years to re-connect the economy, CS Mudavadi tells the House

Prime Cabinet Secretary, Rt. Hon. Musalia Mudavadi made his way into the National House answering questions from the legislators. Musalia Mudavadi told the Members of parliament that the Government of Kenya has spent over Kshs.19 billion since July 2022 to alleviate the impact of drought in the country’s Arid and Semi-Arid Areas.

Rt. Hon. Musalia Mudavadi today responded to Questions by Hon. Yusuf Hassan, MP Kamukunji Constituency regarding the drought management, supply, and distribution of relief food in Arid and Semi-Arid Areas.

Hon. Mudavadi disclosed that the Ministry of East African Community, the ASALs, and Regional Development conducted a National Food and Nutrition Security Assessment to establish the impact of the drought in the Semi-Arid and identify the number of people affected, and determine necessary interventions.

The assessment revealed that approximately 4.4 million people in the ASALs and an additional 495,362 in nine non-traditional ASAL regions faced acute food insecurity, and over 2.5 million livestock deaths were attributable to the drought.

Members of the National Assembly learned that the worst affected counties were identified as Marsabit, Garissa, Isiolo, Mandera, Tana River, Samburu, Turkana, and Narok, where people were displaced in large numbers, and livestock and household items were swept away by floods.

In a session chaired by Speaker, Hon. Moses Wetang’ula, Members of the National Assembly asked forty supplementary Questions regarding measures to replenish livestock that have perished due to drought, over-reliance on rain-fed agriculture, and the Safety Net programs the Government has put in place to protect from recurring drought.

“Interventions have been in terms of relief food, emergency relief cash transfers, support to the school feeding program, cash transfers under the Hunger Safety Net Program, water trucking, and livestock off-take”, said Hon. Musalia Mudavadi.

He further added that county governments had also provided relief food assistance, scaled up cash transfers, livestock feeds and vaccination, and water trucking, as well as overseeing peace dialogues and resource-use agreements.

Documents tabled revealed that development partners, UN agencies, NGOs, and other non-state actors have contributed more than Ksh. 48 Billion towards drought response interventions, while the private sector-led National Steering Committee on Drought Response (NSCDR) has distributed 163,150 food hampers worth Ksh.450 Million to approximately 978,900 most affected persons.

While making his submissions to the National Assembly, Hon. Mudavadi informed lawmakers that the Government has also taken other steps to ensure relief supplies reach as many people as possible and to scale up relief and humanitarian response to save lives, alleviate suffering, and bolster human dignity among affected parties.

Mudavadi was adamant that it wouldn’t be soon to seek out the ongoing economy. The CS said the country should be ready for challenges that will last for at least two years, focusing on priorities.

“I want to be very honest, as a former Minister for Finance that we are in this for a long haul. We are working to turn the economy around,” he said.