Kenya has secured Ksh51.96 billion in emergency funding from the World Bank to help cushion millions of households from the biting effects of climate change and diseases.

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

The money will be spent on five key areas, which include farm inputs and animal health, emergency water and sanitation, health emergencies, cash transfers and coordination.

Documents from the lender seen by  Kenyans.co.ke on Thursday, October 8, indicate that the money, roughly USD400 million, is expected within the coming weeks once the final figures are confirmed by the Treasury and the World Bank.

Additionally, Bloomberg reports that the funds do not constitute new borrowing but are unspent funds from Kenya’s existing World Bank-funded projects that will be redirected to urgent emergency response efforts.

📌 What You Need to Know

The funds will be channelled through the Kenya Contingent Emergency Response Project (KCERP), the country's first-ever facility under the World Bank's Rapid Response Option.

It is a project that runs for six years and can be activated more than once, with each activation responding to a specific crisis and lasting about twelve months.

The programme is set to cut across the 47 counties, and will be steered by a committee chaired by the Deputy President Kithure Kindiki and Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi.

The Food Systems Resilience Project (FSRT) team at the Ministry of Agriculture will handle day-to-day coordination of the emergency response activities across the country.

The documents show that Kenya sought the funds after the Iran war broke out in February, driving up global oil prices and affecting tea exports and remittances from the Gulf.

CBK Governor Kamau Thugge first announced the plan in April, while multiple reports indicated that Kenya was seeking about Ksh58.5 billion (USD450 million) by August.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke