Garissa County leaders in north-eastern Kenya are appealing for humanitarian support to mitigate the devastating impact of drought that has hit hard the region and put at risk the survival of people, livestock and wildlife.

Speaking outside his office after a crisis meeting on Wednesday that brought together both National and county representatives, Garissa governor Nathif Jama said that drought was already having devastating effects to the communities’ livestock and livelihoods across all sub-counties in the region.

The situation has been made worse following four consecutive seasons of failed rains leading to acute water shortages, depletion of pasture and rising food insecurity among pastoralist communities.

The latest report from National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) indicates that Garissa County’s drought status remains classified as alert with a deteriorating trend with at least 33,000 households facing starvation.

The report further states that thousands of households are facing severe water stress, while livestock conditions have drastically declined in the recent months, threatening the mainstay of the county’s economy and way of life.

Jama said the situation is becoming dire, reiterating the need for both the national government, partners and stakeholders to come together to save the situation.

“We are here to sound an alarm over the drought situation in our county. It is becoming hard for the pastoralist communities. At the moment the situation is grim and very soon, we are going to be losing livestock and wildlife if something is not done urgently,” Jama said.

“Eighteen of our 30 wards are severely hit and we are trucking water to more than 200 settlements. We are also providing fuel, maintaining the vehicles to make sure that the people who benefit do not suffer due to breakdowns,” he added.

Garissa Deputy County Commissioner Sebastian Okiring also voiced concerns about the deteriorating situation and appealed to development partners and humanitarian agencies to step up their interventions and coordinate closely with both the national county structures to ensure effective and timely response.

“We appeal to development partners to come in and actively engage so that we are able to ease this situation. This is a situation that is getting dire and a lot of support is required so that we safeguard our people, livestock and wildlife,” Okiring said.

He said the national government was considering commercial offtake disclosing that it was engaging KMC through the NDMA to start the process.

Garissa County NDMA Coordinator Abdinoor Dubow said that while they were engaging all available resources from both the national and county levels, considering that the weather focus has predicted a below normal rainfall, there was need for more stakeholders to come on board and help in managing the situation. A Tell Media / KNA report / By Erick Kyalo