Appeal for disaster relief

The Kenyan government and the UN on 28 June launched an international appeal for US $62.5 million to assist over one million flood and drought victims in Kenya.

Representatives from more than 20 foreign missions, various UN agencies and some NGOs, including the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), participated in the launch of the appeal, according to a report issued by the World Food Programme.

The funds would provide urgent food aid to nine drought-stricken districts with a population of approximately one million, the report said. A targeted 300,000 people within these districts would be absorbed by a food-for-work programme. An additional 16 districts would be targeted for expanding school feeding programmes, and roughly 150,000 flash-flood victims in Nyanza, Coast, Western and North Eastern provinces would also receive aid.

Farid Abdulkadir, the KRCS Director of Disaster Relief, Preparedness and Response, worked closely with flash flood relief missions in May. He told IRIN on Monday that while response teams were learning from the challenges of that disaster, the flooding had made it especially difficult to respond to the current drought conditions.

"Luckily, we were able to do some public education while we were delivering the goods. We told people about which water was safe to drink and how, for general sanitation, to stay disease-free. So far it has been successful," he said.

In Tana River District - one of the nine districts currently under the relief appeal - about 6,000 acres of standing crops were washed away in the floods, according to the KRCS. "What is difficult about all of this is that they [floods and drought] are happening so close together. The only way we can handle this is if we use our branches throughout the country and call on other organisations," Abdulkadir said.

Of the $62.5 million currently under appeal, over half would be used for food rations, while the rest would be used to provide other relief aid items, such as blankets, soap and mosquito nets.