Garissa leaders appeal for food aid

Local officials and community groups in Garissa District, eastern Kenya, said on Monday that pastoralists in the area faced serious food shortages unless emergency relief food reached them soon, the 'East African Standard' reported. The chairwoman of the government-backed women's organisation Maendeleo ya Wanawake (MYWO), Adhar Gamadid, was quoted as saying that the majority of pastoralists in the area had lost their livestock during the drought, and were forced to depend on relief supplies. Gamadid added that the spread of HIV/AIDS had aggravated the problems of drought and poverty, and many women in the district had been widowed and were unable to support their families.

UNOCHA reported in its humanitarian update for August that persistent drought in northern and eastern Kenya had forced many pastoralists to become increasingly dependent on relief food. The inadequacy of the seasonal long rains (from March to May) had forced almost all the livestock in Garissa to migrate to neighbouring Isiolo and Ijara districts in search of better pasture, and the food security situation in the area was likely to continue to deteriorate before the next rainy season, the report said. Kenya's meteorological services director, Joseph Mukubana, was quoted as saying by the 'Daily Nation' on 8 September that the forthcoming short rains season (October to December) was unlikely to be sufficient to compensate for the previous drought period, and that water and food shortages in the arid and semiarid areas would continue over the next four months.