50 acres of vegetation, goats burnt in Bomet forest fire

50 acres of vegetation, goats burnt in Bomet forest fire

More than 50 acres of vegetation and an unknown number of goats were on Wednesday afternoon consumed by a forest fire in Chepalungu Forest, Bomet County.

The fire that spread fast through the dry vegetation as the area is currently experiencing a prolonged dry spell was put out with help from the county’s disaster management officers who stopped it from spreading further.

The county officer in charge of disaster management, Mr Stanley Mutai, said his team managed to put it off before it spread to the nearby Kapchemibei Village.

This comes even as the country is experiencing a drought season that is projected to last up to six months.

On Wednesday President Uhuru Kenyatta said the national government would realign its budget to address the current drought situation, calling on county governments to also come up with measures aimed at addressing the situation.

The president was speaking on Wednesday, January 18 at State House, Nairobi after a briefing by a team of Cabinet Secretaries on the drought situation in the country and measures taken by the national government and other stakeholders to address the situation.

“County governments will also be required to realign their budgets. We need to know how many people each county government is feeding,” said the President.

The President pointed out that all government agencies including the National Youth Service (NYS) and other security agencies need to be involved in food and water distribution.

The team comprising Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries of Devolution, Treasury, Agriculture, Labour and East African Affairs told the President as of now, 23 arid and semi-arid counties are facing serious drought crisis.

Written by Erick Kombo

 

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Drought forest fire wild fire acres of vegetation Chepalungu Constituency chepalungu forest goats

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