By Bisola Adeyemo
Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, has declared drought in the country a national disaster, as more than 1,000 heads of livestock are feared dead in Tana River County as drought ravages the county.
This was revealed on Wednesday in a statement from the president’s press office.
According to the statement, the president also instructed the National Treasury and the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government to assist affected households including water and relief food distribution as well as livestock uptake.
According to residents in Wayu Boru, the number of dead livestock could be more as some of the herders have returned home empty-handed from the 390-kilometre walk from Waldena to Lamu in search of pasture.
”We had walked more than 40 kilometres to the nearest water reservoir. A few kilometres to the water point, the cows got tired from the scorching sun and started falling, we had to carry them to the water source,” says Ismail Kushushu.
Mr Kushushu has lost 15 cows and each day, he watches as the health of the remaining 20 deteriorates, reuters reports.
The residents further lamented that water pans that were just a kilometre from the village have dried up and are now filled with carcasses of livestock and wild animals that used to depend on them.
For calves to survive, the residents have to go an extra mile, which is an expensive affair.
“The mothers cannot produce milk, therefore we have to buy UHT milk for the calves which sell here at Sh70 a packet and are hardly available,” says Abdi Golo.
Efforts to dig wells are not yielding what they hoped for, as all they keep getting is saline water which is unsafe for human consumption.