President says Kenya food shortages amount to 'famine'

KENYAN President Mwai Kibaki has declared food shortages ravaging parts of the east African country a "national disaster" and for the first time used the word "famine" to describe the crisis.

"To ensure that we have adequate interventions on the ground, I am declaring the famine a national disaster," Mr Kibaki said in a New Year's Day speech to the country.

Some 2.5 million people in the country's north-eastern, eastern and coastal regions are in need of food aid, which the government estimates will cost some 11 billion shillings (€130m).