3.5 Million Kenyans Face Starvation as
Grain Surplus Sold Abroad

AP 17jan2006

WAJIR, Kenya —  Malnourished children cried feebly in hospital in this drought-stricken corner of Kenya, too weak to even make themselves heard as aid agencies warned Tuesday that they do not have money to feed millions of Kenyans hit by food shortages.

Information and Communications Minister Mutahi Kagwe announced a day earlier that the number of Kenyans at risk from the food crisis had increased to 3.5 million from 2.5 million. The number of districts affected by drought is expected to rise to 37 from 17, just more than half of Kenya's 70 districts.

"These new figures show how bad this crisis is becoming," said Paul Smith-Lomas, regional director for the international aid agency, Oxfam. "The situation is worse than it has been for many years and the hardest months are still ahead of us."

The crisis hit as Kenya forecast a surplus harvest of 62,500 metric tons (68,900 tons) of maize. Farmers in other parts of the country were waiting in lines for up to two weeks to sell surplus maize, the nation's staple food, to the national cereal and produce board.

Surplus food in the west of Kenya is being exported abroad rather than diverted to those at risk from the food crisis.

President Mwai Kibaki's administration has been accused by lawmakers, citizens and the media of failing to respond effectively to the worsening crisis.

The government's attempts to distribute food aid have been ineffective because of the lack of efficient structures for distribution and monitoring, according to Oxfam.

In some places aid has been distributed simply by throwing it off the back of trucks, Oxfam said.

Government spokesman Alfred Mutua declined to comment on the criticism.

Aid agencies do not have money to buy food from districts with surplus harvests to feed those hit by the food shortages, said Peter Smerdon, spokesman of the World Food Program.

"WFP is short of $44 million now to feed 1.1 million people because of the drought," Smerdon said. "Without new donations, WFP will run out of food to distribute in drought affected areas by the end of February."

"Our previous warnings and appeals have sadly received little response from the donors. What is a very limited window of opportunity to avert mass suffering in Kenya is closing very fast," he said. "We don't want Kenya to become another Niger, where in 2005 donation only increased when people started dying after months of appeals for contributions to prevent deaths."

Britain pledges $5.3 million British International Development Secretary Hilary Benn met Kibaki on Tuesday and pledged 3 million pounds ($5.3 million) to help alleviate the crisis, according to a statement released by the president's office.

One-third of the money will go to dealing with food shortages and the remaining two-thirds will go to providing water in drought-stricken areas, the statement said.

Benn later visited the northeastern Wajir District, one of the hardest hit by drought.

At the district hospital's pediatric ward, 12 of the 19 patients there are children in urgent need of nutritional assistance. Doctors hand bags full of dextrose solution to feed the children intravenously.

Dr. Wahame Karanja said that in October there were no child deaths because of malnutrition at the hospital, but two died in November, four died in December and three had died by January 15.

Grass eaten to dirt Seventy percent of Wajir's population live below the poverty line and depend on cattle and goats for survival. They only have enough food aid to help roughly a third of the population.

Most of the grazing land in the semiarid district has been consumed down to the dirt. Tens of thousands of emaciated livestock stumble through the scrub brush searching for food, their owners watching helplessly.

Hundreds of nomadic families who have seen more than 90 percent of their livestock die during the drought have began converging on Wajir, setting up settlements in hope aid would be brought to them.

"The (emergency) response has never taken so long and the rate of malnutrition has never gone up so fast," said Nuria Ibrahim Abdi, who has worked as a nutritionist for the last 11 years in the district hospital and assisted patients during the droughts in 1998 and 2000.

source: http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/01/17/kenya.food.ap/ 17jan2006

Improve Distribution of Food, MP Tells State 

FRANCIS OPENDA, BIKETI KIKECHI & VICTOR OBURE / East African Standard (Nairobi) 

Nairobi — Mwingi North MP Kalonzo Musyoka has urged the Government to streamline the procurement and distribution of relief food.

The former Cabinet minister said the Government's relief efforts had not been effective, saying there was still a problem with distribution.

"The famine might be devastating unless innovative measures are put in place," he said, adding that it was a paradox that maize was rotting is some places due to the Government's inability to buy it while Kenyans were starving elsewhere.

"We must put aside our political differences and together fight the famine which has been declared a national disaster," he said.

The minister said while National Cereals and Produce Board silos were full in the North Rift, those in drought-hit areas were empty. He said the old crop occupying space in the maize growing regions should be transported to famine stricken areas to create space in the stores.

"It beats logic to say you cannot but maize because the silos are full yet in other parts of the country people are starving," he said.

He was speaking at the Neno Evangelical Centre, Nairobi, where he received famine relief assistance for the Kalonzo Musyoka Foundation. Pastor Joseph Ng'ang'a donated maize, beans and clothes for the needy.

Kalonzo commended the media for exposing the sale of famine relief food.

Meanwhile, Langata MP Raila Odinga on Sunday said the Government was behind the sale of relief food. He also blamed the Government for failing to plan food distribution in the country.

"How can relief food be sold when the Government has its administrative machinery from sub-location level to the police?" asked Raila.

Lack of planning

He dismissed Government spokesman Alfred Mutua's recent visit to Garissa where stolen relief food was being sold.

"That was shedding crocodile tears because they know these things are happening," said Raila.

He wondered how people could die of starvation when Government machinery existed. The former Roads minister said it was a shame that last year's crop was in silos in North Rift yet people were dying of hunger.

"This is a Government of majibwa (big dogs) which eat their own puppies. That is why relief food meant for the dying is being sold," said Raila.

The North Rift, Central Rift and Western provinces produced 15 million bags of maize this year.

Raila said most of that crop was still being held by farmers due to lack of storage facilities in NCPB silos. He blamed it on lack of planning by the government, because silos in drought-stricken areas like Garissa, Kitui, Kajiado, Busia and Migori were empty.

He said it was sad that President Kibaki only realised how grave the situation was after seeing pictures in the Press.

Meanwhile, four MPs from drought-hit northern Kenya censured the Government for failing to investigate those behind the sale of relief supplies.

The MPs, who included assistant minister Aden Sugow, said Government officials responsible for relief food distribution in Garissa should be investigated. They dismissed preliminary findings and the arrest of 24 Garissa traders over the scandal.

The MPs Hussein Maalim (Dujis), Yusuf Haji (Ijara) and Ali Wario (Bura) were speaking at a funds drive in Garissa

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source: http://www.eastandard.net/archives/cl/hm_news/news.php?articleid=35076 17jan2006