Starving West Pokot families in Kenya is migrating to Uganda

Thousands of families faced with starvation in parts of the North Rift region are in urgent need of relief supplies and access to health care as a humanitarian agency issues alert over the deteriorating food situation in the region. About 100,000 people in West Pokot County are faced with an acute food shortage caused by crop failure due to prolonged drought with the majority of those affected migrating to Uganda in search of food and pasture for their animals. The hard-hit areas are in Pokot Central and Pokot-sub-counties. Some of the areas affected are Ombolion, Kasei, Turkwel, Kiwawa, Kodich, Alale, Kasei, Takaiwa and Kodich in the Pokot North sub-county. The Kenya Red Cross Society manager in charge of the North Rift region Esther Chege said 81,219 households are in urgent need of relief supplies. “Almost all the sub-counties are faced with acute food shortages. We have so far issued cash vouchers of Sh5,000 to 2,723 households to enable them to purchase priority foodstuff,” ...