Protecting Kenya’s Environment is Key to Enhancing Food Security

Food security in Kenya has become a perpetual topic with no immediate solution. Over 3.5 million people now facing severe hunger and living under steep poverty levels.

Millions of Kenyans are unemployed or underpaid, and many can’t afford to buy food in the first place because of the ever-rising cost of essential commodities in the country.

This and other factors that slow down our agricultural sector such as poor infrastructure in various parts of the country, high domestic taxes levied on farmers for transporting their goods, and high farming inputs, continue to throw Kenyans into deep poverty lanes.

With all the issues going around, from the Russian Ukraine war that has been the main factor claimed to cause hiked food prices to an election year full of political noises and failed rains for three consecutive seasons, this is the perfect time to have a conversation on how best we can fix our environment, protect our water towers and ensure that our food security is guaranteed.

Otherwise, in the coming one to two years, we might be looking at another big crisis with a population unable to feed their families and a double number of deaths compared to now.

By now, we should have already learned that we cannot depend on importing every other essential product. It’s evident how the African countries, including Kenya, suffer because of over-dependence on products from outside countries when the global market prices are disrupted.

This should also be a significant push towards embracing and putting more effort into ensuring our agricultural sector is not just a boost but the major one.

According to books, since Kenya gained independence in 1963, the country has prioritized the protection of its land alongside the development of its people. The matter is, however, a complete opposite in reality – and this continues to threaten food security in the country.

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The focus on environmental conservation in Kenya benefits agriculture alleviates poverty, and promotes sustainable development. If it had been given the necessary attention and efforts, maybe we would not be talking about hunger ravaging over 20 counties in Kenya.

Almost 70 percent of the country’s workers are employed in agriculture. In addition to this, ecotourism makes up nearly 20 percent of the Country’s GDP.

Despite Kenya’s economic reliance on environmental health, it’s surprising how it is not given the priority it deserves. For instance, in the 2022/2023 proposed budget, which was read by Treasury CS Ukur Yatani, the ministry allocated only 47 billion shillings for the agricultural sector.

This is not a good sign for development in a country full of crises affecting the citizens.

It’s time to start learning that climatic changes will come and when they do, it is usually very difficult to contain them without proper preparation and planning.

Take a look at what is happening in South Africa, for instance. The country is drowning in flooding, depicting how angry nature is.

 The irony is that while SA is drowning in flood, Kenya is drying up fast beyond control.

Yet again, even amidst the suffering of the citizens in Kenya, take a look at how the leadership is indifferent and clueless. They don’t seem to care about their situation at hand. They are just singing their hums to catch the hungry citizens into their nets come August 2022. How sure are we then that the situation shall change beyond elections?

But even far from the political world, people carelessly cut trees without replanting them nowadays. No one cares about nature anymore without thinking that it’s the same trees that will bring rain.

Now we are here with no rain, and no one connects the dots between deforestation and lack of rain. Have we even looked and questioned the safety of our water towers?

For the country to at least try to solve the food situation in the country, we must take up individual responsibility to ensure the safety of our water towers.

One major way we can achieve this is by planting at least 1 billion trees in the next five years as a country to start reversing the negative impact of all the deforestation we have been doing. Can we do it? Can we manage one billion trees? Of course, we can hope for the sake of us.

We must pass legislation at the National and County levels that make it mandatory for every Kenyan to plant a tree a week until we meet the one billion trees mark. This will change the carbon rating to a higher level for Kenya and control climatic changes.

Currently, there are 88 Water Towers in the country. Out of these, 18 are gazetted, while 70 are non-gazette. Among the gazetted Water Towers, 5 major ones are key to the country’s socio-economic development.

They include the Mau Forest complex, Mt. Kenya, the Aberdares, the Cherangany hills, and Mt Elgon.

We must protect them adequately and at all costs to ensure our agricultural sector’s steady flow and growth, which will in turn contribute significantly to strengthening Kenya’s food security.