Increasing leadership capacity and a clear vision in disaster preparedness could be the answers to a sustainable solution for dealing with drought in the country. The Kenya Alliance of Resident Association (KARA) recently brought together stakeholders from various areas to come up with Kenyan ideas on possible sustainable solutions to the country’s perennial drought problem. The development of a national strategy to link production to consumption was touted as a starting point to oil the wheels towards the quest to rid the country of perpetual drought spells.

Participants of the meeting held at a Nairobi hotel on 17 October 2011, pointed out that Kenya has repeatedly acted on the symptoms and not the cause of the drought. It was their opinion that the country would rather respond to the emergency than plan and prevent the occurrence of the emergency. The GIZ Health Sector Programme was represented at this meeting by GabrieleWurster-Vihuto the Head of the Drought Response Programme and Violet Jepchumba the Operations Manager.

Statistics show that less than two decades ago, Kenya was a net food exporter but in 2011, current reports indicate that Acute malnutrition rates range from 20-35%, while Sever Acute Malnutrition (SAM) and Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) reportedly increased by 78% and 39% respectively. Questions have therefore been raised as to where Kenya went wrong and why the country cannot feed its own population yet it is considered an agricultural country.

It was further pointed out that with the Kenyan population growing exponentially and the food production growing linearly, it is a matter of time before the country creates a malthusian catastrophe - a situation in which a society returns to a subsistence level of existence as a result of overtaxing its available agricultural resources.

The meeting discussed how the place of the young people in trying to find sustainable solutions couldn’t be ignored.  It was explained that one of the reasons why the country has food deficits is because upto 75% of the Kenyan population is under 35 years old, yet the average age of a Kenyan farmer is 58 years. This therefore begs the question whether the observed malnutrition level is due to lack of food or lack of affordable food in the affected population?

Participants conceded to the fact that there are several unknowns in dealing with drought in Kenya and unraveling the equation would take time, effort and commitment from the entire population. Nevertheless, development partners like the German Development Cooperation are supporting efforts towards finding sustainable solutions. The German government, through the GIZ Health Sector Programme has supported its partner the Ministries of Health with Seven Million Euro in the implementation of measures to curb the negative health effects of the drought and in strategizing long-term solutions. The drought response project has adopted a three-pronged approach focused on humanitarian support, development focus and building leadership capacity in regards to disaster preparedness in the country.