"Alarming" malnutrition in pastoral areas

Successive poor production seasons in pastoral areas of eastern and northern Kenya continue to negatively affect the food security status of the area's population, the latest USAID Famine Early Warning System bulletin said. Heightened insecurity and regional cereal deficits have contributed to increased vulnerability in those areas, it said. "In several pastoral districts and in localised areas, alarmingly high rates of child malnutrition are indicative of severe food insecurity," the bulletin said. Dry weather conditions persisted in pastoral areas during August. Elsewhere, a reduction in maize prices in several key markets of the country has been attributed mainly to increased supplies following the end of harvesting in most of Eastern, Central, Western and Nyanza provinces. However, the price reductions are expected to be short-lived, and maize prices in late August remained 10-50 percent higher than at the same time last year, the bulletin added.