“The government committed to a long-term solution to floods in western Kenya,” CS Owalo declared.
The government is committed to finding the solution to perennial floods in western Kenya, cabinet secretary for Information, Communications and Digital Economy, Eliud Owalo has said.
Owalo said the solution entails harnessing the excess waters to ensure sustainable food security through irrigation and desilting some rivers to contain backflow displacing thousands.
In the short term, he said, the government was distributing relief food to the displaced, adding that the Ministry of Interior will also move in soon to assist the flood victims with blankets, mosquito nets, and other supplies.
He was speaking in Siaya county today while presiding over the distribution of relief supplies to displaced families in Ugunja, Alego / Usonga, and Bondo constituencies.
The CS, who was flanked by Siaya county commissioner, Jim Njoka and local United Democratic Alliance officials, among them Fredrick Oyugi Dor, the UDA coordinator in Siaya, said poor planning was to blame for the displacement of people by the floods.
“We need to do mapping so that we are aware of designated agriculture zones, residential areas and river banks and lake shores where people should not encroach,” said the cabinet secretary who addressed the media at Dibuoro primary school grounds in Alego / Usonga constituency.
He said that the current state of affairs where people live anywhere because of improper planning and lack of enforcement of the laws must stop.
Owalo said that the Kenya Kwanza government was now focused on serving Kenyans and will not engage in empty rhetoric.
“President William Samoei Ruto has said time and again that the period for politics is over and we are now committed to tackling problems affecting the citizens,” he said.
During the occasion, CS Owalo was accompanied by the chairman of the Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA) chairman, Jack Ranguma, and the chairperson of the Postal Corporation of Kenya board of directors, Mrs. Rose Nyamunga among others.