Schools on verge of closure as drought persists

Hundreds of school going children are out of school due to fast escalating drought that has hit parts of Garissa County, a non-governmental organisation has said.

Speaking at Kotile location after a drought assessment programme, Womankind Kenya's child programme officer Hassan Ismail accused the government of being reluctant in mitigating drought effects in Ijara sub-county, where the calamity has been greatly felt.

He said many families have migrated to where they can get water and pasture for their livestock, adding that schools are on the verge of closure.

"We have visited several schools where head teachers are [having] difficulties running their schools due to [the] dry spell. Many of the children, especially girls, have dropped out because they are forced to either assist their parents to fetch water or take care of their homes," he told Sunday Nation.

Mr Ismail said the government is not in touch with what is happening.

"The government has all the machinery to mitigate the crisis but it's like they are waiting for the emergency level when livestock and human lives will be lost," he said.

"Children are dropping out of school because of the prevailing situation, and there is nothing being done to reverse this trend."

He said an urgent intervention is needed to abate the situation.

National Drought Management Authority official Abdinoor Dubow said the dry spell has reached an alarming level, observing that water points in Ijara sub-county have dried up.

"Drought in the county is at an alarming stage at the moment. It will soon get into emergency level because water points have dried up and livestock production has gone down," he told the Nation in an interview in his office.

Ijara sub-county education officer Robert Mukombe said the situation is getting worse by the day and most children are out of school.

He told the Nation at his office in Masalani that the government is trying address the matter and ensure that learning institutions are not closed, particularly during national examinations.

"We are faced with extreme crises in schools: low-cost boarding schools in the sub-county have no water to cook food despite the availability of school feeding programme rations, head teachers have been insisting on closing schools because they only depend on water tanks that are being provided by the county government, which is not enough," he said.

Edited by Philip Momanyi