Millions face starvation in Kenya

KENYA needs €200 million to help feed 3.5 million people threatened by starvation due to drought and avoid a “massive humanitarian catastrophe”, the government and the United Nations said yesterday.

An assessment report said 396,500 tonnes of food aid will be required, according to the UN World Food Programme.

“Failure to quickly fund the Kenyan aid effort could lead to large-scale loss of life and the worst humanitarian crisis since Kenya gained independence (from Britain) in 1963,” the charity said.

The Kenyan appeal said 396,525 tonnes of additional food assistance - valued at $221.5m (€185m) - was needed to avoid mass suffering for the next 12 months.

Kenya is one of the worst-affected countries from a drought afflicting east Africa since late 2005. Scores of people and tens of thousands of livestock have died from starvation and related diseases in the arid northern regions.

Desperate searches for water and pasture have intensified clashes between Kenyan herders and pastoralists from neighbouring Somalia and Ethiopia.

The charity’s statement said: “The government of Kenya and its partners must act now to avoid a massive humanitarian catastrophe.”

It said short rains which normally extend from October to December had failed, worsening the situation especially in the arid north and east.

Oxfam said malnutrition levels had reached 30% in the worst-hit areas, more than double the level at which an emergency is declared under UN standards.

Head of Oxfam in Kenya Gezahegn Kebede said: “Unless there is swift intervention, growing numbers of people will become severely malnourished and the mortality rate will rapidly accelerate.”

The crisis hit as Kenya forecast a surplus harvest of 62,500 tonnes of maize, mainly from western Kenya. Those in the eastern and northern drought-stricken areas cannot afford to buy food from other regions.

Farmers struggling to find better prices for their surplus harvests in western Kenya were exporting the food.

The livelihoods of cattle-herding communities “are severely threatened as the very basis of their food security system, livestock, are dying in unprecedented numbers due to lack of water, browse and pasture,” according to the assessment report.

Drought has also hit Somalia, Ethiopia and Tanzania, making it increasingly difficult for Kenyans to find water and pasture in those areas.