Should We Contribute for those Dying of Hunger?

Call me inhuman. Call me insensitive. Call me an ignoramus fool but I hold the view that we should not contribute for those dying of hunger in Turkana County, Baringo County and other 10 counties across the country.

We should not be blackmailed to start sending the little we have via PayBill numbers in the name of “helping out our fellow Kenyans.” This time around, we should stand firm and say NO to PayBill numbers and I will tell you why.

We should not allow these greedy Kenyan politicians to steal everything, including funds set aside to help during disasters like these, then turn back and want us to help sanitize their looting through contributions to the victims.

We should not allow these inhuman, corrupt leaders to always take us for a ride. They have always believed that as Kenyans, we have 100 of our brain made of that of a warthog, always reacting and forgetting almost immediately.

The Jubilee government, through the vocal Deputy President William Ruto, without any fear of contradiction, loudly declared some years back that no Kenyan will ever die of hunger. That the government was committed to making sure that that dream happens.

What is more, food security is part of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big 4 Agenda which he hopes to use to leave a legacy, though as it is right now, his legacy seems to have already been curved on a stone with corruption leading.

This is a government of bandits, always looting from the poor and running away from their responsibilities. This time around, let us force them to do what they are supposed to do. Let us point out and even shame them though I doubt if some like Eugine Wamalwa have any shame at all.

The truth is more than 11 Kenyans have died as a result of hunger. More than 1.2 million of them are facing severe starvation in at least 12 counties. 800,000 of those at the point of dying from hunger are from Turkana County.

For those who do not know, maybe you just landed in Kenya the other day, Turkana County is rich in oil deposits. Drilling and transportation of the same are already happening. This is one of the poorest regions in Kenya, and the most marginalized too, no wonder some of them keep on asking whether they are in “Kenya.”

In a period of five years, more than 5.6 trillion shillings have been stolen under this government. 5.6 trillion shillings is not ‘some small money.’ Hiyo si pesa ya kununulia mandazi. What is more painful is, of the 5.6 trillion shillings, more than 4 billion shillings are from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

The government has continued to deny reports that Kenyans are dying of hunger. No single Kenyan has died because of hunger. Even the Deputy President believes no one is dying. Eugine Wamalwa believes all the noise about hunger is propaganda and that there is enough food in this country and that the government has everything under control. And they have no shame lying on national television.

The Irony of Hunger in Kenya

As some Kenyans die of hunger in other parts, some Kenyans have thousands of bags of maize and beans rotting away in stores as they try to beg their government to purchase it from them.

Last harvest season, farmers harvest over 16 million bags of maize. They hoped that the government would buy it from them. The government shocked them when it announced that it would only buy 2,000,000 bags from them, initially at 2,300 shillings per 90-kilogram bag before it was revised to 2,600 shillings.

Farmers still have about 12 million bags of maize with them with nowhere to take them. This year’s harvest might immensely drop after the government announced that farmers will not be getting the subsidized fertilizer.