President declares drought national disaster, appeals for food aid

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on Wednesday appealed for US $76 million to fund emergency relief operations to help some 3.3 million people affected by drought, saying crop failure brought on by inadequate rainfall amounted to "a national disaster". Kibaki told reporters in the capital, Nairobi, that the situation could worsen if the short rains expected towards the end of the year also failed, in which case the number of affected people would rise to 4.3 million and the cost of relief operations would soar to about $90 million. Some 156,000 mt of assorted food would be needed to feed the hungry from now until January 2005, the president said, adding that poor rainfall had led to a 60-percent crop failure in five of Kenya's seven provinces. Help for the affected people would be offered through general food distributions, food-for-work schemes and supplementary feeding programmes, according to the text of the appeal. Kibaki said 1.5 million of those affected were primary school children, who would be fed through school feeding programmes, which required 9,500 mt of food at an estimated cost of $2.1 million. Non-food items for the school feeding programmes would cost another $2.9 million. Non-food drought recovery measures to be undertaken in agriculture, livestock, water, sanitation and health would cost an additional $32 million, the president said. The worst-affected areas were in the Coast, Eastern, North Eastern and Rift Valley provinces, according to a consolidated inter-agency report prepared by the Kenya Food Security Steering Group, a multi-agency team comprising representatives from the Kenyan government, the UN and NGOs. In parts of the Eastern Province, food insecurity resulting from drought was exacerbated by the contamination of grain stocks with aflatoxin, a poisonous mould affecting poorly stored cereals. Consumption of contaminated grain claimed the lives of 121 people, according to figures provided by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of the deaths were reported in the districts of Makueni and Kitui, with lower infection rates in Mbeere, Thika and Embu districts. Agriculture Minister Kipruto arap Kirwa told IRIN that the government was devising an integrated programme to address the problem of recurring drought-related food insecurity in the country. "As the government, we are thinking of various ways of combating hunger and ensuring sustainable food security in the long run," said Kirwa. "We have an integrated approach in the ministries of roads and public works, transport, water, agriculture and other related ministries. We are having consultations now on how we can have a multifaceted approach," he added. He said the Ministry of Regional Authorities was also looking into the feasibility of establishing or reviving irrigation projects to boost food production in some of the drier areas. It was also "considering possibilities of doing partnerships with some international investors so as to be able to produce food in some of these marginal areas," Kirwa said.