“I spend all my time, with foreigners, begging for food. Including those who colonised us. It is humiliating. But I have no choice because we cannot let our people die,” he told local media.

The deputy president said that consecutive failed rains had left many people with no food and some had died.

He said he had prayed while at the foot of Mt Kenya for God to “heal our land” and save the people from the crisis.

Speaking to a local-language TV, Mr Gachagua said begging was deeply loathed within his community, terming it demeaning as a son of a former freedom fighter.