Juja MP George Koimburi has sounded an alarm over looming famine and has appealed for food relief for thousands of students and residents facing starvation.
The situation, he noted, has been aggravated by failed rains in successive seasons in the largely semi-arid area which also has a huge peri-urban population.
The MP spoke while distributing relief food to at least 6,000 residents in Juja, Witeithie, Murera, Theta and Kalimoni wards.
Koimburi noted that about 20,000 residents have been identified by his office as being in dire need of food support and called out for more donations.
The situation has affected school going children with most of them going to school while hungry thus affecting their academic performance.
“This area has received minimal rains over several seasons leaving thousands of residents facing starvation. Close to 80 per cent of farms in this region are not arable and therefore farmers here have no hopes of harvesting any produce from their farms,” said the MP, who was accompanied by area DCC Charles Muriithi.
Koimburi noted that the locals, who received beans estimated to last them for about a week, were about a third of those facing hunger.
Appealing to the government to scale up distribution of relief food in the constituency, he noted that there are thousands of residents who are languishing in hunger.
“It is evident that our people will get little or no harvest this season after the rains subsided and this means that more people will be affected by hunger. However, we are grateful to the Government for coming to the aid of our people and releasing relief food,” he added.
However, to mitigate the drought situation, Koimburi said plans are underway to initiate an irrigation project in the area as the government seeks more ways to assist farmers boost their production.
He said the water will be tapped at Ndururumo area in Theta ward and will be piped to Juja Farm. He disclosed that he is currently lobbying for funding of the project.
“This is the only way to beat hunger because farmers can no longer rely on the disrupted rainfall patterns.
Most people are jobless and are facing an uphill task in providing food for their families,” he stated.
Residents hailed the government for the donation, but called for more sustainable ways to fight hunger.
“We are glad for the support and we hope the government can scale up provision of food rations because hunger is really affecting many families. We are yet to harvest anything from our farms and fear we might get less or no harvest now that the rains subsided,” said resident Mary Mbirwe.
She noted that students can no longer concentrate in class due to hunger saying that they are surviving on a single meal a day.
“We are worried that academic performance of our children will decline drastically since they cannot concentrate on empty stomachs. We are however hopeful that we will get some food from our farms even though it will be little,” she added.
By Kamau Njoroge
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