The Treasury has allocated an additional Sh12.6 billion towards relief food and rehabilitation of millions of starving families, increasing allocation for special programmes by more than 20 times.
The allocation, contained in the supplementary budget before Parliament, shows the State targets to support 3.4 million households with relief food and 200,000 households with non-food items.
The new allocation will see the budget of the State Department for Special Programmes rise nearly 21 times to Sh13.5 billion from the initial approved budget of Sh653.7 million, highlighting the disruption of weather and climate change on national planning. Part of the additional funding will go to salaries.
“This reflects a net increase of Sh12.9 billion on current expenditures on account of additional funding for Personnel Emolument and humanitarian and disaster response,” said the Treasury.
The allocation comes after months of hunger and starvation in the country’s arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL) counties, which Kenya Red Cross (KRC) has termed as “one of the most severe droughts in recent memory”.
About 3.3 million people across 23 ASAL counties in Kenya are currently said to be food insecure, with the figure projected to rise to 3.68 million by June 2026 if the March-May long rains perform below average.
The KRC had recently appealed for Sh6 billion to sustain food assistance for drought-affected families over the next two months as hunger intensifies.
A recent report from the National Drought Management Authority on drought and food security situation in the ASAL region showed food security had worsened in these regions following the poor performance of the October-December 2025 short rains and prolonged hot, dry conditions.
An additional Sh146.46 million has been allocated for drought management, taking the allocation to Sh643.56 million from Sh497.1 million.
The State Department for the ASALs and Regional Development has also benefited from additional allocation, taking its allocation to Sh14.8 billion from Sh10.9 billion.
The additional allocation comprises Sh9.5 billion and Sh5.3 billion for current and capital expenditures, respectively.
“The net increase of Sh3.9 billion is mainly on account of enhanced allocation under the Hunger Safety Net Programme and capital projects under the Regional Development Authority,” said the Treasury.
Oxfam International update published yesterday said failure of the last rainy season across Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia has triggered a food and water emergency for millions of people still trying to recover from drought spanning from 2020 to 2023, during which five rainy seasons in a row failed.
The agency said across the three countries, nearly 26 million people are facing extreme hunger as drought conditions worsen, decimating crops before harvest and leaving livestock to die from a lack of water and pasture.
