The Redcross has announced today that the number of people facing drought(hunger) in the country has tripled. The number of children that have malnutrition has also doubled. The shocking revelations done by Redcross across the country suggest that the government should double the funds allocated for disaster management in February.
A total of 13 counties are in the Alarm Stage and another 10 counties in the Alert stage.
Outside the region, Yemen and Nigeria are also facing famine, in what the United Nations has called the worst humanitarian crisis since the end of World War II.
Like many of its neighbours, Kenya is suffering the consequences of two failed rainy seasons in a row, hugely decreasing crop harvests. Food prices have soared, pushing inflation to a five-year high of nine percent in February and Eleven percent inflation by end of March.
The government through the Finance cabinet secretary will need to amend the proposed budget 2017/18 because of the emergency. The required action by Government now is to look for more stakeholders and approach the major partners in order to avert the situation.
The Redcross also suggested that the finance ministry to look for other sources of funds because increasing taxes will increase the rate of disaster as other small scale business will have a risk of the closing up their businesses.
“The situation is getting worse every day. Malnutrition rates among children are steadily escalating. Children are getting sick, and livelihoods of families have been decimated following the loss of thousands of their livestock.”
“It is more and extra challenging for people to obtain water, people are having to travel for up to three times as long just to get water for their family.” Dr Abbas Gullet, the secretary-general of the Kenya Red Cross Society, said in a statement.
Already the government has a deficit of 2 trillion which part of it is a debt. Today, the finance committee suggested suspending all new projects funded by the government and use the little remaining as a float to sustain the country.
The parliamentary committee said that the government used a lot of resources in implementing unnecessary things that they don't benefit the common Mwananchi directly. "The Kenyatta's Government spent a lot of money on a project that was to done slowly and forgetting critical projects that the common person could feel. No projects to be launched because the financial status of the country is at an alarming rate." says the public accounts committee chairman Nicholas Gumbo. [no-sidebar]
Post a Comment
What is your say on this