March 10, 2024 (Public Communication and Media Relations)

The County Government has successfully concluded the distribution of relief food to vulnerable communities affected by prolonged drought and food insecurity in the region.

The week-long initiative aimed to cushion 612,000 vulnerable people across the County, providing them with various food items such as maize meal and vegetable oil.

A total of 5,160 metric tonnes of assorted food items, 102,000 bags of maize, and 3,000 cartons of vegetable oil were distributed.

County Executive for Public Service, Administration, and Disaster Risk Management, James Wangiros stated that the exercise targeted the most at-risk populations to the negative impacts of drought including households with children under the age of five, pregnant women, the elderly, families with no means of livelihood, and persons living with disabilities as the

CECM James also mentioned that the exercise also prioritized nomadic pastoralists returning from Uganda in search of water and pasture for their animals.

CECM Wangiros emphasized the vital input of humanitarian organizations and credited the success of the operation to the strong partnership between the County Government and humanitarian actors.

“We expect that the distributed food items will bring hope to the affected communities, guarantee them access to much-needed sustenance, and build their resilience against the challenge of prolonged drought caused by climate change,” added CECM Wangiros.

While acknowledging that more efforts are required to permanently address food insecurity in Turkana, CECM Wangiros urged beneficiaries to make good use of the received food items to sustain their families.

To ensure accountability, Chief Officers and Directors joined the 2-day validation exercise where the names in the existing registers were pre-qualified. The validation took place before the distribution exercise.

“The Directorate of Disaster Management ensured that targeting, area mapping, registration, validation of registers and eventual distribution involved community leaders, kraal representatives, humanitarian agencies and Government,” CECM Wangiros explained.

The Executive emphasized the County Government’s readiness to address concerns and complaints arising from the exercise and warned against any diversion of relief food, stating that stern action would be taken against those found responsible.

At the Sub-County, ward, and village levels, the exercise was coordinated by senior County Government officials with the assistance of field officers and the already existing committees of the Food Distribution Points (FDPs).