Kitui Deputy governor Dr. Wathe Nzau has confirmed that the county government of Kitui in collaboration with national government officers and officials from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has been able to control the massive invasion by desert locusts in the county.
According to the Deputy governor, all eight sub-counties of Kitui county had been invaded by swamps of locusts beginning from January of this year but the county government responded swiftly and controlled them before doing excess damage on crops.
Dr. Wathe who was speaking at Endui Hills in Waita location, Mwingi central Sub-county where the last batch of locusts is said to have been sited, the deputy governor said that more surveillance is being contacted to come up with ways of controlling the locusts in the hills which are scattered in over 8 hectares of the area. The officers are also doing close monitoring to unveil several breeding areas where the locusts might be reproducing in order to send their control team.
The DG thanked Kitui governor Charity Ngilu for giving him the mandate of rooting out the locusts. He said that several methods have been employed in winning the war including aerial spraying and relying on 50 officers from the national youth service for ground spraying.