Standard Team
15 July 2004
Nairobi — President Kibaki yesterday declared the famine situation in the country a national disaster and sent out an urgent appeal internationally for food to save some 3.3 million Kenyans from starvation.
The President said due to the prolonged drought and inadequate rainfall, there was an estimated crop failure of more than 60 per cent in five out of the seven provinces in the country excluding Nairobi.
The Government has so far distributed relief food worth Sh1.5 billion to the most affected communities but only has stocks to last one month, he cautioned.
"The current forecasts indicate that the country is likely to have a maize shortage of about 4 million bags during the coming harvest season," he said.
The Head of State said the situation would get more grim if the short rains expected in the October/November season failed.
"The country will experience a more severe food shortage, and up to 4.3 million Kenyans including 1.5 million school children will require assistance for another six months," he said.
The President estimated that the food aid required to contain the situation in the next six months would cost Sh6 billion.
This is apart from a further Sh2.5 billion required for intervention in non-food items in the areas of water, sanitation, health and nutrition, agriculture, livestock and education within the same period.
The President made the appeal at State House, Nairobi, during a news conference after a closed-door meeting with diplomats, donors and aid agencies.
Also present were Agriculture minister Kipruto arap Kirwa, Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Mwakwere, Minister for Special Projects in the Office of the President Njenga Karume and the Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura.
The President said data received so far indicated that out of the 3.3 million Kenyans in urgent need of food aid, 1.5 million school children in 26 districts are already experiencing severe food shortage.
"Consequently, the Kenya Food Security Group has advised that an estimated 156,000 metric tones of food be made available to contain the situation in the next six months. This is estimated to cost $76 million," he said.
Even with timely and adequate short rains, said President Kibaki, there would still be need to follow up recovery interventions to enable the affected Kenyans resume normal livelihoods.
The President called on the donors both local and international to move with speed in providing both food and non-food items to avert further suffering of those already adversely affected by the drought and famine.
Meanwhile, the death toll from food poisoning in Kitui District has risen to 25 after a 35-year-old man died at the Mutomo Mission Hospital on Monday.
The residents have been consuming maize contaminated with the deadly Aflatoxin B1 substance, as famine bites in the area and food supplies continue diminishing.
In a related development, the National Cereals and Produce Board has suspended the release of maize from a number of its stores.
The board's managing director, A Maritim, said the move was prompted by suspicions that some of their grains at the Garissa depot could have become contaminated.
"The board has suspended the release of maize from the said stores until the true situation is established," he said.
A total of 451,397 people risk starving to death in Laikipia and Nyeri districts as crops continue to dry up in the farms owing to the current drought.
A Nyeri-based charity organisation, Caritas, in a recent report on famine in the two districts, says learning in most public primary schools is on the verge of grounding to a halt as pupils experience the hunger pangs.
The revelation comes barely a week after the World Food Programme withdrew its school feeding programme for over 200,000 pupils countrywide.
As a result, only one million pupils will benefit from the feeding programme starting this month contrary to the previous figure of 1.2 million.
At least 400,000 people in parts of Ukambani ravaged by famine are in dire need of food.
Yesterday, five MPs from the region sounded an alert over the looming famine which they said could be devastating.
Moffat Maitha (Kangundo), Daudi Mwanzia (Machakos town), Charles Kilonzo (Yatta), Benson Mbai (Masinga) and Kalembe Ndile (Kibwezi) said unless adequate food was disbursed to the affected residents soon, hunger-related deaths would result.
Many parts of Machakos Makueni, Kitui and Mwingi districts had experienced an acute rain failure this season, said the legislators during a two-day tour of the worst hit areas.
The MPs said a repeat of a similar desperate situation in the region in the future could only be stopped by the Government setting up viable agricultural policies which would see the residents stop relying on relief food.
The raging drought will prove disastrous to pastoralists regarding their livestock in North Eastern Province unless urgent intervention measures are taken by the Government, a report by the Arid Land Resource Management Project has said.
The project, which falls under the Office of the President, monitors drought situations in arid and semi arid lands and advises the Government on how to prepare , intervene and recover from its effects.
In the northern part of the country, says the report, pasture has dwindled while water points have dried up.
Most boreholes do not function while the few ones still in use need major repair.
Approximately 80 per cent of the 1.5 million residents in the region are in dire need of relief food.
On a positive note, hunger-stricken famillies in Ganze division of Kilifi district breathed a sigh of relief on Tuesday when the Government provided them with food.
During the exercise supervised by Coast PC Cyrus Maina, close to 1,500 residents received maize flour donated by Somken Petroleum Company .
A total of 30,000 people in Marakwet District urgently need relief food.
The District Commissioner Japhter Rugut said the number comprised peasant farmers in the escarpments and valley regions of the district who rely on maize and beans as their staple food.
Maize in the settlement schemes of Bungoma District has started drying up in the farms due to lack of rainfall.
A spotcheck by the East African Standard showed that the rains failed to come completely a month ago after the second weeding and there are no signs that it could rain in the near future.
More than 240,000 people in Kitui district need urgent relief food to avert imminent deaths.
The District Commissioner Paul Mwita yesterday said the most hit areas are Mutha, Ikutha, Mutomo in Kitui South, Yatta in Kitui West and Mwitika in Mutito constituency.
Prices of livestock in Laikipia district have greatly depreciated as pastoralists strive to dispose of the animals owing to the worsening drought.
A drought monitoring bulletin for the month of June indicated that signs of poor livestock health in Mukogodo division had led to a record 2.2 per cent death rate for cattle and 4.4 per cent for goats.
The pastoralists are selling goats at an average of Sh1,200 and Sh1,300 for sheep.
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