Day: May 14, 2024

Farmers whose lands were ravaged by floods after the onset of the March-April-May rains have been advised not to put them under a new crop but allow the surviving ones thrive.

Nyeri County Director of Meteorological Services John Muiruri says the remaining phase of the rains will drastically reduce and will not be sufficient to sustain newly planted crops.

Nyeri is among counties that were ravaged by floods after heavy rains of up to 700 millimetres coupled with thunderstorms pounded the county during the last one month.

Some of the areas that bore the brunt of the floods include Kieni, Nyeri Town and Mathira East where dozens of families were forced to move from their farms after storm waters broke into their homes and farms.

At least 120 families who were uprooted from the homes sought shelter at Gathiru Secondary School and Thunguma Primary Schools both located
within Nyeri town.

But Muiruru now says the on-going rains will subside significantly over the coming days and therefore not advisable for planting new crops to replace those destroyed by floods.

‘The worst of the rains are behind us and we expect a significant reduction of the rains in the months of May and June. We also know much of what the farmers had planted in their farms was swept by floods and right now many areas are devoid of any crops. Our advice to farmers who lost their crops is to refrain from going back to their farms to plant afresh since the remaining phase of the rains will not sustain such crops,’ he told KNA.

The weather forecast for Nyeri for the period running May 14 to May 20 predict that much of the county will experience cloudy mornings breaking into sunny intervals with occasional afternoon showers over several places.

Minimum day
temperatures are set to range from 22 degrees to 25 degrees centigrade while night temperature are expected to dip to lows of up to 12 degrees centigrade.

On whether the county is staring at a failed crop following the devastating floods, the officer said the Kenya Meteorological Department had shared their forecast with all government agencies and relevant county authorities for the March-April-May rain season in advance as a precautionary measure.

He stated that once such information has been disseminated to the relevant stakeholders, the onus of what is to follow in regard to the impacts of the rains no longer falls under their mandate.

‘Even before the start of these rains we had issued weather advisories in regard to their cyclic pattern. Here in Nyeri we did share the information with the Department of Agriculture and the National Drought Management Authority and
in their view the rains would be sufficient to sustain crops to maturity,’ he added.

Meanwhile, a student from St Peter’s Thunguma Secondary School narrowly survived drowning in Chania River yesterday morning after slipping into the swollen river.

According to Nyeri Town chief Mary Wagathigo the Form Two Student from Witemere village had gone to fetch water at the river yesterday morning when she suddenly slipped and fell into the fast flowing river.

Luckily, she managed to clutch at some riverine foliage and managed to get out of the raging waters.

Yesterday a radio station and a number of social media users had reported that the girl had drowned into the river prompting frantic efforts from residents in a bid to rescue her

The reports were later refuted after the family confirmed that the girl was safe at home with a minor scorpion bite injury.

‘The alleged drown
ing of the girl was actually reported to me after it surfaced on social media and was later aired on one of the radio stations. But on inquiry from the local Nyumba Kumi community policing coordinator I was informed the girl had only slipped into the river but was able to get out. At the time of this confirmation, she was actually in a saloon where she was having her hair done in preparation for reporting back to school today (Tuesday),’ said Wagathigo.

Over the last one month Kenya has experienced one of her worst floods in years that has left more than 300 people dead and destroyed homesteads in dozens of counties.

In addition the floods are reported to have swept more than 8,000 heads of livestock and destroyed 36,344 acres of croplands according to a Kenya Red Cross report that was released early this Month.

Some of the areas that bore the brunt of the
floods include Tana River, Nairobi, Western Kenya, Rift Valley, Lake Victoria, Central Kenya and North Eastern region.

Source: Kenya News Agency

The County government directorate of climate change has kicked off a process that will see the county utilize Sh 382 million funds meant to address effects of climate change.

The directorate of climate change has begun an assessment of proposed projects under the Locally Led Climate Action (FLLoCA) to ascertain compliance with the set requirements for funding by the World Bank and the County Government’s regulations.

Documents from the FLLoCA Program report that Turkana received a total allocation of Sh 382 million. World Bank disbursed Sh 262 million, while Turkana County was complemented by a matching fund of Sh 120 million.

The Deputy Director of Climate Change, Thomas Kiyong’a, said the countywide assessment will encompass site visits, project inspections, and structured community engagement and officials from both national and county governments over the next assessment p
eriod.

‘The projects will be evaluated using an Environmental Safety Standards (ESS) checklist with 10 variables, some of which include; the presence of signed land transfer documents, a functional project management committee, and evidence of a working grievance management framework,’ said Kiyong’a.

He further noted that Turkana County had a total of 33 FLLoCA projects, developed through community-based approaches that are locally-led.

‘In our prior engagements preceding this assessment, residents identified borehole drilling, rangeland reseeding, water body protection, irrigation-fed agriculture, and animal production as key interventions to enhance resilience against climate change impacts,’ said the Deputy Director.

The FLLoCA initiative, supported by the World Bank, aims to assist communities in bolstering resilience against climate change impacts through joint funding from the World
Bank and the County Government.

During a field visit to Loreng’, Kiyong’a informed the residents that the data collected would be analyzed to develop corrective measures for projects failing to meet ESS compliance requirements.

A Local elder, Emanikor Echukule Lokarach, described the borehole selection of the standards as vital in addressing grass cover depletion caused by continual animal migration in search of water.

According to Lokarach, the proposed Loreng water project adhered to all initial steps outlined by the Climate Change team, expressing optimism that the project would be deemed fully compliant and facilitating the release of project funds.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Investors have been urged to provide capital for the expansion of health sector services in Homa Bay County.

County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Finance Solomon Obiero said that the county lacked diverse and quality private sector health services.

He said if more investment was channeled to the health sector, it would promote healthy competition for the benefit of the residents.

Speaking during the official opening of Equity Afia Medical Center in Homa Bay town, Obeiro said proliferation of health facilities would also bring down the cost of health services to the county residents.

Obiero who was accompanied by the Equity Afia Homa Bay Branch Administrator Dr Barnabas Onyango, said although the county’s population was rising, there was no commensurate expansion of health services.

‘I encourage investors to open health facilities in Homa Bay County. This will lead t
o competition in service delivery and the people of this county will benefit more,’ Obiero said.

The CECM said proliferation of health facilities in the county would reduce the trend of residents seeking specialized health services from other counties.

‘Today, there are rampant cases of referrals to health facilities outside our county because we lack specialized hospitals. Existence of more health facilities in this county will cushion residents from such referral,’ Obier said.

Dr. Onyango said their aim of opening the hospital was to enable residents to get quality health services at affordable costs.

He said they were open to fair competition with other health facilities in offering the best medical care in Homa Bay.

‘Our objective is to accord Homa Bay residents quality medical care at affordable costs. We embrace healthy competition with other health facilities,’ Onyang
o said.

Equity Afia Medical Center is expected to be an alternative health facility for residents who have been relying heavily on public health facilities. It has been opened by the Equity Bank.

Source: Kenya News Agency