{"id":250254,"date":"2023-02-16T19:43:15","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T17:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/press\/president-ruto-calls-for-urgent-scale-up-of-response-as-drought-worsens-in-kenya?lang=en"},"modified":"2023-02-16T19:43:15","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T17:43:15","slug":"president-ruto-calls-for-urgent-scale-up-of-response-as-drought-worsens-in-kenya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/president-ruto-calls-for-urgent-scale-up-of-response-as-drought-worsens-in-kenya\/","title":{"rendered":"President Ruto Calls for Urgent Scale up of Response as Drought Worsens in Kenya"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"image_wrap\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/thumb\/cc24b1eb54c949c\/600\/418\" alt=\"President of the Republic of Kenya\" \/><\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/africarc\/loganalytics?press_id=240496&amp;press_source=President of the Republic of Kenya\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p>President William Ruto has called for scale up of interventions to tackle the current drought.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>He said the response must be urgent to avert &ldquo;widespread distress and suffering&rdquo; as the crisis is worsening.<\/p>\n<p>He identified the priority areas as enhanced food assistance, cash transfers, health and nutrition interventions.<\/p>\n<p>Other interventions, he went on, include sustained water supply, livestock feeds, school feeding programmes and peace and security initiatives.<\/p>\n<p>The President was speaking on Thursday at State House, Nairobi, during the launch of the 2022 Short Rains (October to December) Assessment Report.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, Cabinet Secretaries, Diplomats, the National Steering Committee on Drought Response and the private sector were present.<\/p>\n<p>President Ruto said Sh6 billion has been set aside in the latest Supplementary Budget to respond to the drought between February and May.<\/p>\n<p>The amount will be supplemented by the private sector-led National Steering Committee on Drought Response that has so far raised Sh650 million.<\/p>\n<p>However, this may not be enough.<\/p>\n<p>The President told the session that more than Sh15.35 billion is required for urgent life-saving interventions.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We call on international partners, the private sector and well-wishers to help us bridge this resource gap that will help in building long-term resilience.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>He committed to the full accounting of every coin donated for humanitarian aid in the country.<\/p>\n<p>To cushion the country against such a disaster in future, the Deputy President said the Government has adopted a long-term measure.<\/p>\n<p>He said irrigation and the ongoing ecological restoration in the country will sustainably help rehabilitate the environment and reverse the effects of climate change.<\/p>\n<p><i>Distributed by APO Group on behalf of President of the Republic of Kenya.<\/i><\/p>\n<div class=\"well well-sm\"><b>Media files<\/b><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/026d0e8ad4c3dbd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/026d0e8ad4c3dbd\" alt=\"President of the Republic of Kenya\" style=\"max-width:500px\" \/><\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/download\/026d0e8ad4c3dbd\">Download logo<\/a><\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/\">Source: Africa Newsroom &#8211; APO<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President William Ruto has called for scale up of interventions to tackle the current drought. He said the response must be urgent to avert &ldquo;widespread distress and suffering&rdquo; as the crisis is worsening. He identified the priority areas as enhanced food assistance, cash transfers, health and nutrition interventions. Other interventions, he went on, include sustained [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":250255,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[4585],"class_list":{"0":"post-250254","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa-news-2","8":"tag-apo","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/president-ruto-calls-for-urgent-scale-up-of-response-as-drought-worsens-in-kenya.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}