NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 21- Safaricom Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Peter Ndegwa has been appointed by President William Ruto to chair the National Steering Committee on Drought Response.
The 14-member team whose mandate is to establish a private sector -led drought mitigation appeal fund, under the auspices of Kenya Red Cross, was gazetted by President Ruto on Monday.
President Ruto noted that following government’s request, the private sector, Non Government Organizations (NGOs) and International development partners agreed to scale up their support towards the interventions to mitigate the effects of the worsening drought situation in the country.
“Whereas it has become necessary to institutionalize the framework for mobilization of additional resources to address the worsening drought impacts, Now therefore, I, William Ruto, President, I establish the National Steering Committee on Drought Response,” reads the Gazette notice.
Those listed in the committee include James Mwangi (Equity Bank CEO),Nasim Devji (Diamond Trust Bank CEO), Shamaz Savani (African Corporation Bank CEO), Paul Russo (KCB Group CEO), Rebecca Mbithi (Family Bank CEO), Jane Karuku (EABL CEO), Joshua Chepkwony (Jamii Telecommunication CEO) and Crispin Acholla (CEO British American Tobacco).
Others are Asha Mohammed (Secretary General, the Kenya Red Cross), Edwin Mukabana (Kenya Bus Management CEO), Patricia Ndegwa (Impact Philanthropy Africa), Krishma Chavda (ISHA foundation) and Hared Hassan from the National Drought Management Authority.
The President also appointed Murimi Murage of the Office of the Deputy President as the Secretary to the committee.
The team will be reporting to Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, who already provides intergovernmental leadership and coordination of drought response.
The committee will serve for a period of one year.
Kenya has for the last four years experienced drought due to unexpected low rainfall, resulting in poor harvests in some parts of the country.
The situation was worsened by the desert locust invasion in 2019, followed by COVID-19 pandemic which led to disruption of the global supply chain of food and farm inputs.
The government reported that eleven counties are currently in the alarm phase, including Turkana, Samburu, Tana River, Marsabit, Wajir, Isiolo, Mandera, Garissa, Kitui, Kajiado and Laikipia.
Those classified at alert phase are nine including Meru, Tharaka Nithi, Embu, Nyeri, Kilifi, Kwale, Taita Taveta, Makueni and Narok.
