Situation overview
- Heavy downpours characterised this month's rainfall in the district, resulting in an average amount of 73.9mm of rainfall being recorded for an average 6.2 days compared to last month's 115.9 mm.
- Pasture improved greatly due to the rains, making distances to grazing areas also reduce by 38.1%. Livestock trekked shorter distances to graze, improving their body condition.
- Household access to water remained relatively easy compared to last month as they only had to walk a distance of 1.3km compared to last month's distance of 1.2km. This reduced the time taken to obtain water which greatly increased during the drought.
- Livestock trade continued to stabilise a little this month as goats fetched a price of Ksh1,327, up by 6.9% compared to last month's Ksh1,241. This was due to Christmas celebrations. However, those of cattle dropped by 12.4% from Ksh7363 to Ksh6450 as they take long to recover from the effects of the drought.
- There was minimal change in food commodity prices this month recorded as Ksh32.9 per kilogram of maize and Ksh77.1 per kilogram of beans. Although the prices were relatively higher than their long-term averages of Ksh29 and Ksh63 respectively, they are decreasing compared to earlier in the year showing an improving positive trend.
- The average daily wage rate was Ksh146.8 down by 14.3% from Ksh171.3 last month. The reduction in rate was due to the reduced activity on the farms as most land preparations were complete. The main source of income was casual labour which employed 52% of the population this month.
- The percentage of children at risk of malnutrition was 10.2% up from 8.3% last month. This was largely due to the poor diversity of diet coupled with factors of poor hygiene in the months during the drought. The ranching zone was particularly affected, posting as high as 20% of children at risk.
- The early warning stage for the three districts is alert with a stable trend.