Elgeyo Marakwet County Commissioner John Korir today spearheaded the distribution of relief foods to the people of Kerio Valley.
The consignment included 200 bags of rice 360 bags of beans which were distributed to the people facing starvation as a result of the drought in Keiyo North Sub County.
According to the Deputy County Commissioner Julius Maiyo, a total of 11 Sub Locations within the arid Kerio Valley will benefit from the food which will distributed by the location relief committee chaired by the respective area chief.
“We had a meeting with the sub-county relief committee together with the MCAs and we were able to share the relief food as per the sub-locations. We were targeting 11 Sub-Locations for the relief food,” he said.
Maiyo thanked the national government for considering the people of Keiyo North, especially the ones facing starvation in the Kerio Valley.
He said the County government also played a very big role in ensuring the transportation of the relief food is achieved.
“These lorries distributing the food were donated by the County Government and I would like to express my gratitude to the Governor of Elgeyo Marakwet Wisley Rotich together with the MCAs for ensuring this process comes to fruition,” he said
According to Maiyo, the committee saw this as an appropriate time for the distribution of the food since children have closed schools for the holiday and this is going to be a big boost to the parents.
Keiyo North has three ecological zones, the highlands which normally receive optimum rainfall enough to ensure the growth of food crops, escarpment where there is also sufficient food, and the Valley which experiences a shortage of rainfall thereby causing severe drought in the area.
Upon receiving the food, the chiefs are expected to hold meetings with their leaders to identify the vulnerable families who are in dire need of relief food.
The County Commissioner and his deputy were flanked by Emsoo and Tambach ward representatives Christopher Cheboiboch (Emsoo) and Dominic Chesire (Tambach).
The exercise comes at a time when millions of Kenyans are facing starvation across the country as a result of poor rainfall.
By Alice Wanjiru and Allan Bwire
