Brutal drought and starvation aggravate tension over diminishing natural reserves along Kenya’s border with Uganda and South Sudan. Currently, Kenya is facing the worst environmental, socio-economic and political apathy. The World Food Programme has noted that at least 2.4 million people in Kenya are at risk of going hungry as drought strikes the north and east of the country, a nearly threefold rise from last year. Two successive failed rainy seasons and multi-seasonal drought is anticipated to navigate crisis and emergency across eastern and northern Kenya, as well as southern and southeastern Ethiopia and Somalia, where serious food insecurity is anticipated to continue into 2022, steered by the collective impacts of conflict, drought, floods and economic shocks on household food and income sources.
CRISIS LOOMS LARGE
In the midday scorching heat, one can witness women peering into a deep hole in the riverbed, searching for water. The communities in this area of Loring, adjoining Uganda, are snatching it in turns to share water from the hole, pulling sure to take their children with them so they too can assuage their thirst.
As people are impelled to migrate to areas where they can unearth water and pasture those are the areas where a lot of raids are observed as people toil to share the same resources, especially with pastoralists from other countries.
LITTLE OR NO HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE
In September, Kenya’s government discharged two billion Kenyan shillings ($17.7m) under the National Drought Emergency Fund to recognize the constant drought situation in the country. But this has been sluggish to trickle down the effect in areas where it is required chiefly.
At the Turkana pastoralist Development Organization TUPADO, a non-governmental organization functioning with pastoralists from Turkana and in neighboring countries comprising South Sudan and Uganda, program supervisor Sammy Ekal told that a more strong government and humanitarian undertaking is urgently required in harshly drought-affected areas.
“The county government has no budget; as of now, they are not able to provide feed,” said Ekal, amplifying that the lack of rainfall since last year had spurred a “mass movement” of pastoralists from Turkana to the cross-border regions of Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia.
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