Government Extends Desert Locust Control Program by Six Months
By Mwakwaya Raymond
Email, thecoastnewspaper@gmail.com
The government has extended the desert locust eradication program for the next six months so as to utilise the remaining Sh2 billion for the World Bank funded project in the country.
Currently, Kenya is free from desert locusts, however, the government is developing capacities to manage any future invasion.
Speaking in Mombasa on December 12, 2024, agriculture cabinet secretary Dr Andre Karanja confirmed that the government had asked for an extension to finalise the remaining programs next year.
According to the ministry’s records, the project was set to expire on December 31, 2024 after its inception in 2020.
The project has been providing immediate assistance to help poor and vulnerable farmers, herders, and rural households overcome one of the worst locust outages in decades.
“Why we are extending is because there has been some financing of about Sh2 billion which has not been used. So, we expect in the next six months we will use these funds for the final programs in the project,” he says.
The CS adds that the project is very important for Kenya because it saved some counties from the devastation of locust menace that could have led to a serious food insecurity in the country.
A World Bank-funded project that aims to prevent the spread of desert locusts, protect livelihoods, and strengthen Kenya’s preparedness. The project was implemented from 2020.
“We have been given an extension for the next six months to finalise on some of the pending projects. It was supposed to have ended on December 31, 2024, but we have been given an extension,” he added.
Garrisa, Isiolo, Marsabit, Samburu and Wajir remain frontline desert locust invasion counties in the country.
“Most of our counties were really devastated by the desert locust. It was a big issue then, but now it’s gone and people may not see that.
The money was used to make aerial sprays that spend some of the monies.”
The WB Group on May 21, 2020 approved US$500 million program to help countries in Africa and the Middle East fight the locust swarms that were threatening the food security and livelihoods of millions of people.
In Kenya, some US$43 million was directed to finance grants to an estimated 70,000 pastoral households and 20,000 farmers to quickly rehabilitate crop and livestock production systems disrupted by the locust swarms.
