Food security outlook mixed

Kenya’s food security outlook remains mixed, USAID’s Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) said in its Kenya Vulnerability Update. It said the outlook was favourable in the short term in arable areas and unfavourable in most pastoral areas. It said the improving food security in the arable areas was primarily as a result of extended rains in January. Initial fears of widespread crop failure in the drought-prone short rains areas have been allayed by well above-normal rainfall in January, FEWS said. However, the mid-term food security outlook for farm families in arable areas is critically dependent upon the quality of upcoming March-June long rains.

It said that in contrast, poor weather conditions have persisted in pastoral districts of northern and eastern Kenya with localised exceptions. Consistent with normal seasonal patterns, little rainfall was reported in pastoral districts during January, even after less-than-average rainfall during the October-December rainy period, it said. FEWS also said that the pastoralists’ food security trend continues to be downward and is accentuated by an erosion of coping mechanisms, resulting from four poor seasons in succession and increased conflict.