Africa-Press – Kenya. The government has announced plans to conduct a fresh audit to determine the number of families affected by drought in Naivasha. With all eight wards recording crop failure, the number of families in need of food relief has doubled in the last two months.
The affected families had appealed for urgent food relief and water supply due to the drought. Last month, Naivasha MP Jane Kihara and stakeholders launched a major drive seeking to buy relief food and rescue starving families.
Naivasha deputy county commissioner Mutua Kisulu said that in the coming days, they would embark on an audit to get the real numbers of affected families.
Mutua said the drought situation which had placed 10,000 families in need of urgent food relief had not changed. He said they would be seeking more relief food from the national government to assist the families.
“The distribution of relief food was affected by the festivity but we are back in the office and have embarked on reviewing the current status,” he said. A community leader Sam Mwai from Longonot said families in the area that borders Mt Longonot national park were sleeping hungry.
“Most of the families in semi-arid lands in Naivasha are undergoing untold suffering and we are calling for support from the national government,” he said.
Speaking earlier, the area MP said that the ongoing rains had little effect in terms of food security with the number of families in need of support increasing.
Kihara said the constituency was vast and needed more food rations. “All the eight wards have been affected by the drought and hence the need for more support,” she said.
The MP said she had to seek the support of the President in getting more food relief as the first batch benefitted very few families. “We are happy with the support given by the government as all wards in this constituency will now benefit,” she said. Kihara said her office through the support of donors had managed to raise over Sh1 million which had been used to buy maize flour.
For More News And Analysis About Kenya Follow Africa-Press
