Aid agencies criticise slow response to crisis

The international community is not responding adequately to appeals for food in drought-stricken Kenya, where more than three million people are facing starvation, a group of 13 leading aid agencies said.

In a press release issued on Monday, they said food shortages were becoming desperate and urged governments and donors to support an appeal by the Kenyan government and the World Food Programme for US $88 million for the July to December period. So far, only a third of the requirements have been met. Late pledges have meant that relief food is not flowing quickly enough, the humanitarian and development agencies said.

“There is a serious shortfall for August,” said Emma Naylor, emergency programme coordinator for Oxfam Great Britain. “There is neither the food nor the money for us to meet the huge needs we face in the worst affected regions...We can’t wait until this crisis becomes a catastrophe. We have to act now to end this vicious cycle of suffering.”

In recent months, Kenya has faced water and electricity shortages that have had a devastating effect on the lives of ordinary people, but it is the food shortages in the north and east that have caused the most serious problems, the press release noted.

Massive crop failures in Kenya are part of a wider drought problem in the Horn of Africa. Hundreds of thousands of cattle and goats could die in Kenya alone, depriving pastoralist communities of their only source of livelihood.