By Mohamed Siyad - Reporter
5 December 2025 - Wajir Governor Ahmed Abdullahi has raised a stark warning over the rapidly worsening drought now ravaging North Eastern Kenya, declaring the situation has already reached crisis levels just one week into December.
Speaking on Friday, Governor Abdullahi, who is also the Council of Governors Chairperson, revealed that three consecutive rainy seasons – including the just-ended short rains – have completely failed in the region.
“This is early December and we are already feeling the heat,” he said, adding that pasture has vanished, water points have dried up, and livestock are dying in large numbers.
Milk yields have collapsed, household nutrition is deteriorating fast, and the market value of animals has plummeted.
“Rangelands are severely depleted and herders who depended on water-pans and feedlots are forced to trek long distances for pasture and water that simply isn’t there,” the governor told residents.
With the holy month of Ramadhan due to begin in mid-February 2026, Governor Abdullahi called for immediate joint intervention by both national and county governments, including the urgent declaration of drought as a national emergency.
He demanded accelerated support in four critical areas - water supply, human health, livestock survival, and decentralised response units.
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“We are engaging the national government on concrete measures to save livestock, but our first priority must be human lives,” he stressed.
The governor announced plans for a coordinated food-distribution programme and appealed to residents to show solidarity.
“Don’t leave a person to die of hunger when you can help. It would be too mean to buy water exclusively for your animals while your neighbour starves.”
He urged communities to place human lives above livestock in the coming weeks, saying only after people are safe should full attention turn to saving herds that remain the backbone of pastoralist livelihoods.
The governor’s plea came barely 24 hours after North Eastern MPs a statement demanding that President William Ruto declare the drought a national disaster and release emergency funding without delay.
As temperatures soar and water-trucking costs skyrocket, leaders warn that without swift, large-scale intervention, preventable deaths from hunger and disease now loom over one of Kenya’s most vulnerable regions.
