The statistics showing that about 1 million Kenyans are facing danger of starvation is shameful .Six years under devolution is enough time supposed to have enabled us achieve food security.
Since devolution began around Ksh. 1.6 trillion has been distributed to all the 47 counties which if well made use of could have resulted to good results.
Kenya has been experiencing periodic drought crisis since the time of independence however we have learnt very little from the challenge. The high number of people that die when such a tragedy should be subject for thought .
According to world vision report, about 15 million children in East Africa are normally affected by hunger when drought arises. It further indicated that they are usually at the risk of contracting diseases such as chorela and typhoid.
Kenya is currently the region's economic power house which indicates that we ought to do more than what we are doing.
In past few months the farmers were complaining that NCPB was unable to buy maize from them since they had a full stock is a prove that poor planning is the cause of hunger in Kenya.
Our nation is well endowed with natural resources that have been underutilised. Kenya has very many rivers and water bodies have been left idle.
The north African countries that rarely experience rainfall have food stability compare to Kenya.It is amazing to note that most of them majory depend on irrigation for planting .Kenya imports rice from Egypt ,a country that depends on river Nile for irrigation that originates from Lake Victoria .
The jubilee government part of the big four agenda which includes the achievement of food security has failed due to scandals. Corruption has been the underlying factor behind the failure. The maize and fertilizer scandal is among the causes for the challenge.
Despite counties such as Turkana that have been worst hit by drought in the past being allocated the highest amount of devolution funds it sad to note that they haven't laid enough strategies to avert the crisis
Inequate storage facilities is one of the main causes for food insecurity. Most Kenyans have their maize rotting in their homes which is uncalled for.
Experts stated that over 10million bags were lost in the last harvesting season due to the post harvest losses caused by infestation by Armyworms.
As a nation we should get to the drawing board and strategize and plan on how to achieve food security in the further.
We should embrace the scientific methods of growing crops which will enable us increase the food production thus reduce the insecurity.
Overependency on rainfall is one of the causes for food insecurity thus we need to incorporate green house technology and irrigation which will boost our production.
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