Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
21 November 2008
Nairobi — There is no respite for over 5 million Kenyans who are starving around the country due to drought, inflation and the disruptive post-election chaos at the start of the year.
In the three districts of Turkana in northern Kenya, ranked the poorest in the country, people are facing death. "Things are bad in the remote parts of the districts as some people go for a number of days without food and have to walk long distances in search of water," a chief said.
In Eastern Kenya, the Diocese of Machakos is profiling 500 households in Kitise Division of Makueni District targeted for food relief by the Catholic Relief Services. Carol Kituku, the diocesan coordinator of the Food Crisis Emergency Response, said the targeted households are only those of "the poorest of the poor." The famine is widespread throughout Makueni.
Families visited by CISA in Kitise generally survive on a meal a day, comprising mostly boiled dry maize.
Cosmas Kyalo, the manager of a conference centre run by the Catholic parish in Wote, said that the food situation is dire, particularly in homes with large families. "A big family needs some 5 kg of maize a day, costing about Sh. 200, which a man cannot earn in a day from odd jobs".
The current drought has hit the livestock, reducing productivity and causing death in some cases. "People spend a lot of time looking for water and have no time left to do anything else," Fr. Bonaventure Musyoki, in charge of the new St Joseph Mbuvo Parish.
The food crisis has affected education as children cannot learn well on empty stomachs. Some have abandoned school. It was also claimed that some parents encourage their daughters to engage in prostitution to support the family.
It is the same hopelessness in parts of the Rift Valley Province, which was worst-hit by post-election violence early in the year.
"Government help is unreliable and irregular; only the elderly are given government rations. We are told to await our turn, but these people sometimes disappear for several months," said Margaret Achiya, a widowed mother of 8 in Mogotio, Nakuru.
In Molo where thousands of people were displaced and resettlement remains incomplete, corruption is rife in the distribution of relief food. Fr. Festus Ndenyele, the parish priest of Kamwaura, said some people are in despair.
"There is no food and no neighbours; and the realities of the atrocities committed against one another earlier in the year are coming back to haunt them. But that is not as painful for them as realizing they have lost all means of livelihood," he said.
Inflation and the high cost of food have made life miserable for millions of Kenyans living in Nairobi's nearly 200 slum neighbourhoods.
In Korogocho, children have dropped out of school to scavenge for food in the nearby dumpsite, or to look for scrap metal to sell to buy food. "Parents remove their daughters from school to marry them off to avoid responsibilities," said David Ochola, Deputy Headmaster of St John Informal School.
"The price of food commodities has increased exceedingly. We must work very hard for rent and food to feed our children, and the little money we get is not enough for our needs," said Asha Hassan of Kibera.
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It's a crying shame Kenya's government doesn't take proper actions to assist the needy. All the promises made in the election period seem to be forgotten. In the mean time even this situation is used to grab money from the starving, who adress themselves to people like me living 7000 km away. May you rot in hell.