Over 25,000 sheep, goats and cattle have already been slaughtered according to DW’s Global 3000 Magazine as part of an initiative by the Kenyan government to provide emergency food relief to families suffering from extreme malnutrition.

Shocking images of malnourished children are now becoming commonplace in Turkana County villages as famine continues to devastate the Turkana people and indeed large swathes of the Kenyan territory.

Many children have stopped going to school and normalcy has generally been disrupted in the remote Turkana villages where hunger-stricken families are now fighting for their lives one day at a time.

At the home of Mzee Etelej, his children are severely malnourished due to lack of food. The drought has made life severely difficult for his family. His children Apus and Apua Etelej are 10 and 13 years old respectively haven't eaten for 3 weeks now and are weak. Their parents can only offer wild fruits as food.

Areas which are currently experiencing harsh drought are parts of Mogotio, Tiaty, Baringo South and Baringo North where animals have started to die for lack of water and grass. It is now estimated that 4.3 million Kenyans are suffering from hunger with calls for non-governmental entities to intervene to mitigate the impacts of drought in the country.

But there’s hope…

A combination of drought-resilient crops and farmer training is bearing fruit in Kenya’s semi-arid regions. Kenya plans to grow 5 billion trees in the next 5 years and an additional of 10 billion trees by 2032.

This, according to President William Ruto, will eventually lead to the rehabilitation and restoration of 10 million hectares in our 290 constituencies as well as some selected ecosystems and water towers threatened by degradation and destruction.

The Ministry of Environment and Forestry has developed a reducing emission from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) strategy and investment plan, a new forest policy and a National Forest Management System framework which sets out key priorities for financing and implementing its ground-breaking goals.