This archive report was first published on 4 October 2021.
Published on October 4, 2021, the UN's humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) warned that the drought crisis in Kenya's Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) region is severe and requires immediate action.
Two and a half million people are already experiencing deep food insecurity after two back-to-back rainy seasons failed, with the number expected to nearly triple by November compared to the same time last year.
Speaking from Nairobi, Stephen Jackson, UN Resident Coordinator for Kenya, described the dire situation in the ASAL region, where people have not seen rain for over a year.
Acute malnutrition rates are rising rapidly, posing an imminent risk to children and pregnant and lactating women.
"People in the ASAL region are facing a dire situation," said Mr. Jackson, who launched the humanitarian Flash Appeal for the Kenya Drought response.
He shared a heart-wrenching story of a mother at the El-Nur Clinic supported by the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), who told him she couldn't feed her children that morning and didn't know if she'd be able to put food on the table that evening.
Many of her livestock have already died due to the drought, and "all of this comes on top of the 2017 drought, COVID, and the recent locust infestations," Mr. Jackson noted.
"I met with women, men, and children in Wajir, who all told me how their lives are being upended by the drought," he said, reiterating that "should the October 'short rains' now fail - as they are projected to do - Kenya will be facing an even deeper crisis."
The Kenya Drought Flash Appeal calls for nearly $139.5 million to deliver relief to 1.3 million people whose lives have been hardest hit by the crisis.
So far, an estimated $28.5 million has been received from donors, including $5 million from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund.
The appeal brings together 45 humanitarian partners, including UN agencies, international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), national NGOs, and the Kenya Red Cross Society, to complement the Government's response to the drought crisis in the ASAL region.
Mr. Jackson pointed out that Kenya's Government has already been responding to the crisis, allocating Ksh 1.7 billion (around $17 million) in public funds and announcing a further Ksh two billion ($20 million).
However, he emphasized that it is not enough, and Kenya urgently needs approximately $60 million for food and job security, $40 million for nutrition, $20 million for Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), some $10 million for health investments, and $7 million for education and other related sectors.
"We aim to deliver a full package of support in counties that will face the deepest and most severe needs in the months to come," Mr. Jackson said.
Welcoming the UN system in Kenya's response to the crisis, Mr. Jackson insisted on the urgency of the situation: "The time to act is now." International support will save lives and livelihoods, he said.
The "severe impact of the global climate emergency is being felt across the Horn of Africa," he noted, referring to the recent Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change report.
Neither Kenya nor the African continent were major culprits in creating the climate emergency, he said, yet they are amongst those most heavily impacted by it.
