Government appeals for emergency food aid

The Kenyan government at the weekend launched an appeal for emergency food aid of about US $61.6 million to help it combat a looming food shortage. In a letter signed by the head of the civil service, Richard Leakey, the government said that early warning assessments had revealed that 1.8 million people in 29 out of the 54 districts in the country were going hungry. It said a total of 18 districts, including the hunger-stricken Turkana, "are worst hit areas, while 11 others have varying degrees of severity". The government said an average of 20,000 mt is now required in the affected districts and that relief and urgent rehabilitation support are required until beyond June 2000. Meanwhile, four more divisions of the drought-stricken Turkana district have been added to the list of areas requiring urgent famine relief food. Lokiri, Lokichar, Lokitaung and Kalokol have all now been classified as "emergency zones" along with Kaaleng, Kerio and Lapuro. Turkana District Officer Alloys Otieno was quoted by the 'Daily Nation' newspaper as saying that all the 17 divisions in the district will be declared "disaster zones" by the end of this month if it does not rain soon. The administration has classified the district into "emergency", "alarm" and "alert" divisions.