This archive report was first published on 22 May 2020.
On May 21, 2020, the World Bank approved a Sh4.5 billion loan to Kenya to help combat the worst desert locust invasion in 70 years.
The loan, which comes with a five-year grace period, will be used for surveillance, buying pesticides, and other measures to control the locust swarms.
Kenya will get the concessional 30-year loan from the World Bank alongside Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Uganda, pushing the total loan to $129.5 million (Sh138 billion).
Locust numbers exploded late last year, encouraged by unusual weather patterns amplified by climate change, and the swarms spread eastwards from Yemen, with Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia being the hardest hit.
‘Without immediate intervention, the locust attack could lead to a deterioration in food security towards the end of 2020 and possible rise in food prices,’ said World Bank Country Director for Kenya Felipe Jaramillo.
The loan comes in a period when coronavirus-linked flight restrictions are hampering efforts to wipe out locust swarms due to lack of supplies.
‘We have almost eliminated the locusts and at the moment we are battling them in five counties, having managed to control the rest of the regions that had recorded invasion,’ Agriculture Secretary Peter Munya said.
