Deputy President, Rigathi Gachagua will on Monday, September 26, convene a crisis meeting to harmonise interventions aimed at mitigating the effects of the severe drought in almost 20 counties.
In a statement by President William Ruto, mitigating efforts need to be implemented to save lives with at least 3 million facing starvation.
The president added that the meeting would bring together all government officials including county leaders.
"My deputy Rigathi Gachagua will, Monday, convene a meeting of GoK involving county leaders/officials to harmonise urgent interventions to stem the severely adverse effects of ravaging drought in almost 20 counties that are putting about 3 million people at great risk," Ruto stated.
The Head-of-State, who is yet to return to the country, delegated the task to his deputy after the United Nations warned of a looming crisis, placing over 3.5 million people at risk due to drought in the Horn of Africa.
UN warned that the number had more than tripled in the past six months- rising from 1.1 million.
Days after the inauguration ceremony, the president jetted out of the country for a tour of the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
He made his first detour to the UK where he attended the state funeral of departed monarch Queen Elizabeth II.
He later addressed global leaders at the 77th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, USA where he proposed an international effort towards “building back better from the bottom."
He added that the plan should include the marginalized, working majority in the economic mainstream.
"We cannot afford to waste another moment debating the merits of doing something vis a vis doing nothing. It will soon be too late to reverse the course of events.”
"3.1 million residents of these ASALs are now severely food-insecure on account of scarce rainfall over three consecutive seasons, leading to poor crop and pasture. This unprecedented confluence of intensely adverse events has exacerbated water scarcity and starvation, worsened by rising food prices, thus complicating Kenya’s roadmap towards delivering good quality of life to our citizens," Ruto stated.
