Threats of desert locust management to people and the environment in Kenya

Desert locust invasions could lead to serious food insecurity. Desert locust invasions are therefore managed as emergencies through urgent, extreme and large-scale interventions. However, emergency response to abate hunger could result in inadvertent threats to people and the environment. Limited publications on this normative dilemma, where efforts to protect human security end up triggering unintentional threats, was an inspiration for the study. The study sought to evaluate threats of desert locust management practices to human security in Kenya from December 2019 and November 2021. The study employed mixed methods research design to target a sample size of 900 respondents drawn from 30 counties that were affected by desert locusts. Structured questionnaire and focus group discussion were used to collect quantitative and qualitative data. The study revealed that threats of desert locust management practices to economic, environmental, health, food, personal and political security contributed 23%, 20%, 16%, 15%, 14% and 12% to the overall human security risk, respectively. The study concludes that desert locust management practices affected economic security the most, and political security the least. The study recommends development of a contingency plan, comprehensive guidelines and customized standard operating procedures for desert locust management operations to allow deployment of well-planned interventions and hence reduce inadvertent human security threats.