Senate team wants Govt action on food distribution

A parliamentary committee wants the government to address poor distribution of food from where it is in plenty to areas where people are facing hunger.

The Senate Committee on Agriculture chairman Lenny Kivuti also wants the government to open up markets amongst pastoralist communities to enable them sell their animals at better prices.

Mr Kivuti expressed concerns that some Kenyans were surviving on wild fruits and dog meat due to distribution hitches.

He cited Turkana county where a section of the population are threatened by starvation due to a long dry spell that has affected grazing fields for the area residents whose main economic activity is livestock production.

“In Lodwar, some 21, 425 bags could not be moved to other parts of Turkana County due to logistical hitches. This must stop,” the Embu Senator told the press in Nairobi.

The committee also questioned why the Ministry of Devolution was not utilising some Sh1.2 billion that was allocated to the Ministry for drought interventions to transport the food to areas where it is needed.

“We shall take up this matter with the relevant ministry. People cannot be going to bed hungry when there is plenty of food in the neighbouring counties,” said Mr Kivuti.

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Felix Koskei said the food shortage in some parts of the country was manageable and the government had taken appropriate measures to remedy the situation.

However, he appealed to Kenyans to stop over relying on maize and diversify their eating habits to contain perennial food shortages.

He disclosed that Agricultural Finance Corporation was liaising with the Ministry’s livestock department to ensure interested livestock traders access loans to purchase the cattle.

The programme is particularly targeting arid and semi-arid regions where the dry spell has threatened livestock production.

Mr Koskei said the government was committed to upscale irrigation in the country as a long lasting solution to the perennial food shortages in the country.

“We are expanding and rehabilitating existing irrigation schemes besides focusing on high value crops like cassava, millets, sorghum, and potatoes, which are resilient to drought,” said Mr Koskei.

Some farmers however raised concerns that the over reliance on maize was due to the government’s focus on the crop, which is the country’s staple, at the expense of other crops.

“The government should give similar attention to the high value crops to tackle hunger given that these crops thrive well in the dry parts of the country, which suffer when rains fail for long,” said Mr Gilbert Ekaru, from Lowarengak, Turkana County.