Posted on March, 27, 2019 at 09:02 am
By GIDEON KETER
Treasury CS Henry Rotich yesterday said three ministries will now draw monies from the Contingency Fund to deal with drought in the country.
This is coming amid reports that State House vetoed earlier announcement by Deputy President William Ruto that Treasury would release Sh2 billion.
State House is reported to have directed Rotich not to release extra amount but should restrict himself to Contingency Fund.
It is also understood that State House was clear that affected counties should take full responsibility since it is a primary responsibility of the units to ensure that food is available.
"We have given approval to affected ministries to spend. They must be in the stage of processing payments through IFMIS to be charged under Contingency fund," Rotich told the Star.
Rotich is reported to have written to the ministries of Water, Devolution, and Agriculture asking them not to spend even a single shilling that had earlier been authorised but instead should only spend the cash in their contingency funds.
Last week on Monday Ruto in the company of Rotich,CSs Eugene Wamalwa(Devolution), Simon Chelugui (Water)and Mwangi Kiunjuri (Agriculture) announced that Treasury would release Sh2 billion to mitigate drought in 13 counties worst hit by drought.
The DP announced that the national government will immediately (by close of Friday) release Sh14.4 billion. The DP said Sh2 billion were to be used to purchase relief food, truck water and rehabilitation of boreholes. And the ministries of Agriculture, Devolution and Water will be in charge.
The government has announced that 865,000 people are affected by drought in the counties of Samburu, Baringo, Kilifi, Tana River, West Pokot, Makueni, Kajiado, Kwale, Marsabit, Garissa, Isiolo, Mandera and Wajir.
Yesterday National Drought Management Authority CEO James Oduor said the government was "on top of the situation" and was marshaling resources including relief food and water to the affected counties.
"The affected counties remain the same and so is the number of people affected. The Ministry of Devolution is on the ground to ensure food is distributed to all parts of the counties," he told the Star on phone.
Source: The Star