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Kenya

NDMA disburses Ksh1.1 billion for drought affected families

Attachments

Nairobi, 28th June 2022:

The Government, through the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA), has disbursed Ksh1.1 billion under the Hunger Safety Net Programme (HSNP) to poor and vulnerable households in Marsabit, Wajir, Mandera and Turkana counties to cushion them against drought shocks.

The Authority has disbursed Ksh638.6 million under the drought shock responsive cash transfer portfolio to an additional 58,000 households in the four counties.

“HSNP shock responsive cash transfers are disbursed to beneficiaries upon triggers based on set thresholds of the vegetation condition index (VCI). When the drought is severe in a given sub-county, an additional 25 percent of households registered in the HSNP database are on-boarded to benefit from the stipend while if the VCI shows that drought is in the extreme phase, then the number of beneficiaries are raised to 50 percent of the registered households,” said NDMA Chief Executive Officer Lt. Col. (Rtd) Hared Hassan Adan.

NDMA has also disbursed over Ksh500 million under the routine cash transfer segment to over 91,000 beneficiaries.

The cash disbursements under the Hunger Safety Net Programme are part of the larger Kenya Social and Economic Inclusion Project (KSEIP) implemented by the Government. The other cash transfers under KSEIP are Older Persons cash transfer (OPCT), Persons with Severe Disabilities (PWSD) and Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) under the overall Inua Jamii programme.

“Each household under the HSNP routine segment, commonly referred to as Group 1 beneficiaries, is entitled to Ksh5,400 while those under the shock-responsive portfolio will receive Ksh2,700,” said Lt. Col. (Rtd) Adan.
Beneficiaries will begin receiving their payments on Wednesday June 29, 2022, through Equity Agents and branches within their regions.

“Mandera and Marsabit counties, with over 19,000 and 18,000 beneficiaries, will receive Ksh108 million and Ksh101 million respectively while Wajir county with over 17,000 beneficiaries received Ksh95 million. Turkana County has the highest number of beneficiaries standing at over 35,000. This county has received Ksh195 million in HSNP routine cash transfers,” he said.

The counties of Mandera, Marsabit, Turkana and Wajir are among the counties hardest hit by the ongoing drought after four consecutive failed seasons which has undermined livelihoods and community coping mechanisms.

“The drought situation has continued to worsen in nineteen (19) of the 23 ASAL counties. This is attributed to the poor performance of the 2021 short rains coupled with previous two failed consecutive seasons and early cessation of the 2022 long rains season. The number of people in need of assistance has increased from 3.5 million in May to 4.1 million in June 2022,” said the CEO.

Six (6) counties namely Laikipia, Mandera, Marsabit, Wajir, Isiolo and Samburu are in Alarm drought phase while thirteen (13) counties including Kilifi, Turkana, WestPokot, Kwale, Meru (North), Embu (Mbeere), Garissa, Kajiado, Kitui, Nyeri (Kieni), Taita-Taveta, Tharaka-Nithi and Tana-River are in Alert drought phase. The remaining four (4) counties including Baringo, Lamu, Narok and Makueni are in Normal drought phase. Acute malnutrition has also been noted across the counties with 942,000 cases of children aged 6-59 months acutely malnourished and 134,000 cases of pregnant or lactating women acutely malnourished in need of treatment.

Since September 2021, the Government has disbursed over Ksh2.6 billion in cash transfers under HSNP and another Ksh8.58 billion targeting the elderly, orphans and vulnerable children and People with severe Disabilities.

Beneficiaries with pending concerns like Change of recipient and ID updates to visit the nearest Equity bank branches to regularize their details in readiness for payments.

The Government has stepped up drought response effort across the 23 counties spending over Ksh4.9 billion in food aid, Ksh500 million for commercial livestock offtake in 13 counties of Turkana, Marsabit, Samburu, West Pokot, Isiolo, Laikipia, Baringo, Mandera, Garissa, Wajir, Tana River, Makueni and Kajiado in addition to water response activities such as water trucking and fuel subsidy to strategic boreholes. A further Ksh1.1 billion has been disbursed as Emergency Relief Cash Transfer to 170,940 vulnerable households.

“The Government, together with its development partners, will next month, July undertake a multi-sectoral assessment of the food and nutrition situation across the ASALs. This assessment will advise on the level of interventions both short/long term to mitigate the impact of the drought,” said Lt. Col. (Rtd) Adan.

For more information, please contact:

Abiya Ochola
Communications Officer
Tel: 0722405876
Email: peter.abiya@ndma.go.ke