The Government in partnership with the Safaricom Foundation and other Corporates in the private sector has flagged off Emergency Relief supplies worth Sh100 Million to 20,000 households which are affected by the current drought in Marsabit County.
Flagging off the consignment at KICC in Nairobi today, Public Service, Gender, Senior Citizens Affairs and Special Programmes Cabinet Secretary Margaret Kobia said that as part of the Government’s commitment to both short term and long-term solutions, in the Budget FY 2022/23, Sh46.8 billion has been allocated to address food security in the country.
Prof Kobia said that the focus is to invest in community-based interventions that will build resilience in all the vulnerable households, diversification of livelihoods and improvement of early warning and impact forecasting systems.
The CS said the initiatives dubbed ‘Pamoja Tuungane’ complements the government’s ongoing interventions which include the initial allocation of Sh2 billion to assist the affected households through relief food distribution, water trucking, and livestock off-take programme.
She at the same time commended the support from the private sector, development partners and other humanitarian organisations that are supporting various drought response initiatives to address food security, health and nutrition, education, peace and security in the Arid Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) counties.
“I call upon more private sector players to consider contributing to drought response and resilience-building in the 23 counties of the ASAL region of this country for indeed, we are stronger together,” she stated.
Safaricom Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Peter Ndegwa, said that the Pamoja Tuungane Drought Response campaign is a rallying call to Kenyans to come together to help fellow Kenyans.
“We are happy to be part of the ‘Pamoja Tuungane’ Campaign aimed at rallying Kenyans to come together and support those suffering from the effects of the prolonged drought,” he said.
Ndegwa stated that through M-PESA, they facilitated mobile money transfers of up to 1 billion shillings free of charge for drought response needs.
“We call upon other corporates and Kenyans across the country to come together as we assist those facing food shortages as a result of the drought,” he highlighted.
Other players involved are Safaricom Foundation, M-PESA Foundation, Naivas, KCB, Ernst & Young, Royal Media Services, Nation Media Group, Media Max, The Standard Group and Radio Africa.
By Hamdi Mohamud and Abdiaziz Mohamed
