NAIROBI, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- The drought situation in three counties located in semi-arid areas in Kenya is currently at the alarm phase as local citizens and their livestock are facing the risk of starvation, Kenya's National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) said Friday.

The three counties, namely Laikipia, Tana River and Tharaka Nithi, joined seven others whose drought situation had already entered the alert levels, NDMA said in its latest update issued here.

So far, ten arid and semi-arid counties are at the alert level of drought, another ten are at alarm level and three are in the normal phase of drought, due to sporadic offseason rainfall, NDMA said in a statement.

Kenya is among the Horn of African countries grappling with a prolonged dry spell that has escalated hunger, malnutrition and loss of livelihoods among subsistence farmers and herders.

According to NDMA, the number of Kenyan citizens in need of urgent food assistance is projected to reach 4.35 million between October to December, if the current dry spell persists.

An estimated 942,000 children below five years and 134,000 pregnant or lactating mothers in arid and semi-arid counties require treatment for acute malnutrition, said NDMA.

NDMA's Chief Executive Officer Hared Hassan said that the October to November short rain season is projected to be suppressed, hence it needs to invest in mitigation measures to avert loss of lives.

To alleviate hunger in the drought-affected counties, the government has also provided relief food, stipends, and dried pasture besides repairing equipment for pumping borehole water, said Hassan.

Hassan revealed that the government has distributed 40,000 bags of specially formulated livestock feed supplements to seven counties and in the last financial year, 4 billion shillings (33.2 million U.S. dollars) were disbursed to beneficiaries of a hunger safety net program. Enditem

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