Garissa county government has kicked off a three-day exercise of distributing assorted food items to 2000 vulnerable families in Garissa Township Sub County.
Speaking at Iftin primary school grounds, Garissa county secretary Abdi Sheikh said the programme is targeting 500 needy families from Iftin, Galbet, Waberi and Township wards.
“Last month Garissa county cabinet approved County Emergency Response Plan 2021 to cushion our people against adverse effects of Covid-19, lock down, locust invasion, floods and drought,” Sheikh said.
“Phase one includes helping vulnerable families in Garissa Township especially in this last week of Ramadhan as we seek more partners to expand to other areas in the county,” he added.
The county secretary further noted that the executive is waiting for the county assembly to debate and pass the Garissa County Disaster Risk Management Bill 2020, which will lay the legal framework for collaborating with other partners in mitigating natural crisis.
“Once our County Assembly passes the bill, we will be able to get more partners on board to help us in mitigating various crisis we are facing in this area. For now, everything we are doing here is fully sponsored by the county government,” the county secretary said.
Each of the 2000 households will each receive 12kg of maize flour, 12kg of wheat flour and 3 litres of cooking oil.
The Sheikh, however ,regretted the meager resources available which could not allow for the program to be rolled out countywide but promised it would be scaled up next to reach more people and give more food and non-food items to vulnerable families.
By Erick Kyalo and Jacob Songok
