Thika residents brave heavy downpour to receive government relief food
Thousands of Thika residents brave heavy downpours to receive government relief food
As the surest illustration of the effects of prolonged drought across the country, thousands of Thika residents in Kiambu County braved heavy downpours to receive relief food donated by the national government.
The exercise that began on Monday afternoon saw women, men and the youth make long queues to receive rice and beans which the government has been providing to cushion Kenyans from the biting drought that continues to ravage the citizenry.
Not even when darkness hit semi-arid Magogoni, Gatuanyaga and Munyu villages where Thika MP Alice Ng’ang’a spearheaded the exercise moved the hungry residents from the long queues.
Distribution of the relief food targeted the elderly and the severely impoverished residents but upon getting wind of the donation, residents swarmed the venues demanding a share saying they are at risk of starvation.
In their statements, residents attributed their struggle with food insecurity to four successive failed rain seasons that have denied them harvests since 2019.
The food, they said, will help them survive for a few days even as they look forward to bumper harvests having planted enough crops on their farms.
Led by Esther Wangari and Esther Wanjiru who acclaimed the government for remembering them, the residents expressed optimism that their planted farms will soon sort their food equation having struggled for years now without hope.
Ngoliba Ward MCA Joakim Njama who spoke to journalists at Magogoni village urged the government to consider doubling the relief food allocation saying that most Kenyans especially his constituents were sleeping hungry.
On her part, MP Ng’ang’a lauded the government for the initiative and urged Kenyans to now get busy at their farms to help the country fill its food basket by taking advantage of the ongoing rains.