President William Ruto has appointed a National Steering Committee on Drought Response to lead a private sector effort to mitigate the drought situation in the country.
The Committee will be chaired by Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Peter Ndegwa, and its members include CEOs James Mwangi (Equity), Jane Karuku (EABL) and Diamond Trust Bank’s Nasim Devji.
It will establish an appeal fund under the auspices of the Red Cross and report to the Deputy President who is co-ordinating the Government response.
Other Members include KCB head Paul Russo, Rebecca Mbithi, Family Bank, Joshua Chepkwony of Jamii Telecom and Shamaz Savani of the African Banking Corporation.
The President also appointed Red Cross Secretary General Dr Asha Mohammed, Patricia Mugambi of Impact Africa Philanthropy and Krishma Jitesh Chavda of the ISHA foundation to the steering committee.
Lt Colonel Hared Hassan of the National Disaster Management Authority is also a member while Murimi Murage from the Office of the Deputy President will be the secretary.
The drought has affected 20 counties across the nation with eleven of those in the alarm phase and the remaining nine in alert phase.
The committee serves for a year.
