At least 22,889 households in three constituencies in Makueni County will benefit from over Sh120 million funded by the American Government through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) for the next one year.
The programme that will be implemented under the Kenya Integrated Emergency Response Project II (KIERP) II targets Thange, Masongaleni, Nzambani/Ivingoni and Mtito Andei Wards in (Kibwezi East), Kalawa ward (Mbooni) and Kitise/Kithuki, Kathozweni and Mavindini wards (Makueni) constituencies respectively that are worst hit by the prevailing drought.
The revelations were made on Wednesday by the World Vision (WV) Project Manager Kioko Mutiso in a County Steering Group (CSG) Committee Meeting chaired by the Makueni County Director for Disaster Management (DDM) Christopher Munguti at a hotel in Wote town.
Mutiso informed the stakeholders who were drawn from government departments and development partners during the inception of the project in the county that they will also target 5,250 People Living With Disabilities (PLWD) and 13,316 children who are mainly living in the targeted households in the respective places.
“The project that was supposed to start from 15th July 2022 to July 14th 2023, will now be implemented within the next 10 months. During this period, the project will be implemented through wash, nutrition and food assistance sectors,” said Mutiso who is overseeing the project in the period under review.
Consequently, he noted that the department of health jointly with WV will be conducting screening of children aged 5 years and below from next week so that they can hasten the process and identify the beneficiaries of the programme.
However, the project manager said that the beneficiaries under the food assistance will get Sh6, 000 per household and the monies will be through M-pesa hence they liaise with government departments to ensure the most deserving and needy families benefit.
“During the period, we are going to procure, 368,593 sachets water purification, 4,331 jerriccans, distribute and install 35 emergency 10,000 litres water tanks, water trucking to public institutions like dispensaries, schools within drought-affected hotspots,” said the project manager.
Also 120 health workers and 150 community health volunteers will be trained in a bid to promote awareness on personal hygiene, environmental cleanliness at the community level as they will be interacting with the community.
The project is also being implemented in Kitui, Kilifi, Tana River and Kajiado counties currently.
Speaking in the same meeting, Makueni County Drought Coordinator Daniel Mbuvi disclosed that an estimated 219,217 people are in need of food relief following prolonged drought that has persisted due to failed rains in three seasons.
However, Mr Mbuvi said that the government was in the process of sending relief food to the county while adding that nobody will die due to hunger in the area.
It should be observed that all Deputy County Commissioners, Sub County Administrators, chiefs and their assistants will be assisting to identify the most needy cases in the targeted areas.
By Patrick Nyakundi
