The government on Thursday allayed fears of starvation among thousands of floods-displaced people in Tana River County.

Some 7,799 bags of assorted food are at the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) in Garsen town for emergency distribution, Coast PC Ernest Munyi (right) has said.

“We also have more than 1,380 bags of maize and 600 bags of soya beans on standby,” said Mr Munyi in an interview with the Nation at his offices.

He said that an additional 3,200 bags of maize and 4,500 bags of soya beans were expected in the area soon.

The administrator explained that the government had distributed 500 bags of maize and 200 bags of soya beans to the floods victims mainly in Kone Mansa location of Tana Delta District.

He praised the displaced families of heeding calls to move to higher grounds.

“They should also focus on generating crops through irrigation. We would encourage them to tap flood waters and employ modern farming methods.”

In Tana Delta, acting district commissioner Anthony Macharia said the Special Programmes ministry had authorised the distribution of food at the NCPB depot in Garsen.

“The ministry has allowed us to give the food at the silos to the displaced families and we are going to do it right away,” he said in an interview.

The DC noted that measures had been set up to ensure that only genuine flood victims received the food supplies.

He said they would work closely with the chiefs and Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) officials to ensure efficiency in food distribution.

KRCS deputy secretary-general for Coast region Mwanaisha Hamisi said the agency would marshal resources to alleviate the suffering of victims.

“If situation gets worse, we shall mobilise resources to help the displaced families and our team is on the ground monitoring the situation closely,” said Ms Hamisi.

“Many of affected households moved to their current makeshift camps empty-handed and our immediate intervention is to provide them with non-food items,” she added.

Clean water

Many of the flood victims have not had access to clean water and use flood waters for domestic use.

Some areas like Mwanja and Odole are still inaccessible due to floods that have rendered roads impassable.

Red Cross provincial disaster management officer Sadiq Kakai said they had acquired two boats to access the impassable areas.