Ibrahim Rashid*.
Media are awash with painful images of severe drought across northern Kenya. Last week was the situation in Wajir, where the Minister, Ibrahim Mohamed Elmi was on the ground in solidarity with his constituents of Wajir East.
The agony and anguish on his face and desperation evident from his voice was most telling about the man behind the infant Ministry for Development of Northern Kenya and other Arid Areas. True its creation was a landmark decision in the Grand Coalition Government’s efforts to reduce inequality.
It was formed in recognition of the fact that the North of Kenya — which comprises 70 per cent of the country — from Turkana, Samburu, Marsabit, Moyale, Isiolo, Mandera, Wajir, Garissa, Tana River and other arid areas require a more intensive and focused approach if they are to prosper and to shed off the tag it has carried since independence: ‘The other Kenya’.
The idea behind the ministry was noble and nobler was the opportunity to appointment of Elmi as its first captain. The two combinations laid the very basis of the ministry, especially his impeccable record locally and internationally.
However, is the man tasked to head and midwife this ministry chasing another Government pipe dream that will keep shifting its year of fruition, similar to the Millennium Development Goals’ 2015 target and Kenya’s Vision 2030?
Too ambitious
The constituents of the vast zone, from Turkana to Mandera and down to Tana River may have to hold their horses for now.
There seems to be a distinct lack of commitment to realise the dream mandate of the ministry which proposes development of infrastructure, strengthening livestock marketing and livestock-related industries, water supply and irrigation, natural resource management, mineral resource exploration, opening up the arid lands for tourism, human resource development and tapping of solar and wind energy to fuel development.
Does it perhaps sound too ambitious and too good to be true?
The minister’s drought appeal to several ministries such as Special Programmes, Water, Livestock, Health and non-State actors such as Oxfam, to avert consequences of the devastating drought in the region was comforting to Wajir residents, whose livestock is dying in large numbers.
The few that survive are sickly, weak and struggle to reach temporary water points put in place using the CDF. How can they make it to the next rain season in October?
The people have no food and their children are leaving the schools in droves even as others exhibit signs of severe malnourishment.
Barely in its second year, the global food, energy, employment and financial crises are threatening to overshadow this ministry’s strategic plan. In April, Uhuru Kenyatta, had in his Budget speech, purported to have allocated the ministry Sh10 billion whereas the actual figure was Sh4 billion.
Youngest ministry
The saga caught the president’s attention who later ordered the Finance minister to allocate an extra Sh5 billion to the Ministry of Northern Kenya and Arid Lands Development.
When then will we begin this long awaited journey from Nairobi Province to the North of Kenya?
The images of Northerners — fellow men, women and children drenched in abject poverty and merely existing — under dehumanising conditions of extreme want, make them wonder whether independent Kenya’s newest ministry’s stated goals are a pipe dream.
* The writer is a development and political analyst.
Source: The Standard
