12 August 2004
editorial
Nairobi — It is bad enough that our President has to hold out the begging bowl for food aid because of a famine that is devastating parts of Kenya.
Famine, as we have stated before, is not merely a condition of failed rains or crop failure; it is a condition of failed policies and failed management. And nothing brings this home more painfully than revelations that our famine situation was made doubly worse by the sale of Kenya's strategic food reserves - at below market prices - two years ago.
Only yesterday, as the Nation was exposing how the National Cereals and Produce Board sold off its grain reserves to politically-connected buccaneers at what was politely described as "uneconomical prices", the Government was launching a fresh appeal for Sh7.5 billion in food aid to sort out the immediate crisis.
It was also becoming apparent that international response to the first appeal issued by the President a month ago may have been slow due to donor concerns over corruption in Kenya.
The food reserves sold cheaply and eventually exported by companies at handsome profits may be modest compared with the amounts now required to save millions of Kenyans from starvation.
But the whole saga provides a clear and painful illustration of the fact that famine - the lack of food - is principally a man-made condition. It is not a natural phenomenon or act of God.
Which means that the problem we face now is ultimately the responsibility of those whose job it was to keep tabs on the situation and initiate interventions well in advance of any famine.
If this famine is thus caused by neglect which can be traced to officials and bureaucrats, then those individuals must be held responsible and made to pay the price.
Dereliction of duty is one thing. There may also be criminal acts and deliberate sabotage if, indeed, it is proved that a group of officials and businessmen conspired to rob us of our national food reserves.
A handful of individuals may have reaped fantastic profits while helping condemn millions of Kenyans to the most humiliating condition of all - starvation. This is something the Government must investigate to take the firmest action possible.
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