“Get your facts right! No life lost in current drought” – CS Wamalwa refutes media reports.
Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry
of Devolution and ASALs Hon Eugene Ludovic Wamalwa has refute media reports
that scores of Kenyans have succumbed to hunger following the current drought
experienced in the country.
In a live interview with the
Citizen Tv on Tuesday night, Wamalwa insisted that no one had died from hunger
adding that the country had not yet reached a stage where ‘we are at alarm
stage for our counties’.
“As of tonight, there is no death
that has been verified as a direct cause of the drought. And as we speak, we
have not reached a stage where we are at ‘alarm stage’ for our counties,” he
told the presenter.
Wamalwa admitted that, as a
government, they were in no position to stop politicians from saying what they
wanted to say but insisted that all those allegations (of deaths) being peddled
around have not been verified.
However, he stressed that they
were working to ensure no life was lost.
He added that the country had
over 4 million bags of maize in our Strategic Food Reserve and the government was
doing everything possible to move this food from areas of plenty to where it
was needed most.
“We do not have to make
allegations that make citizens panic. There is no cause for alarm. There is
plenty of food within our borders. All we need is to transport the food to
where there is a deficit. We are moving in to support counties in bringing in
food and water,” he said.
The CS said that a lot had
changed (in the affairs of the state) when compared to the past with counties
being their first line of defence.
“They have been given money and
are required to set up emergency funds to handle drought, floods. We expect
every county, particularly ASAL counties, to set aside sufficient funds to sort
out these emergencies. National government only comes in when counties are
overwhelmed. We are not yet at a point where we can declare a national
disaster.”
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