Food security improved but needs persist

Continuing rains in Kenya, parts of which are still suffering drought or its after-effects, differed widely across the country through November and December 2001, with varying effects on economic activity and food security, according to the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP).

The Horn of Africa drought of 1999/2000 seriously affected Kenya - as well as parts of Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan - undermining the food security of an estimated 4.4 million ordinary Kenyans, particularly in pastoral areas.

Overall food supply had now improved considerably due to favourable rains in major cereal producing areas but a steep decline in maize prices was damaging farm incomes, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reported in mid-December.

However, pastoral populations in Kenya continued to depend on food assistance due to drought conditions that have persisted for the past three years, it added.

Generalised WFP food distributions came to a close in Kenya in mid-2001, but a new phase of the emergency food programme saw general distributions continue in certain districts (mainly in the north), in addition to emergency school feeding and food-for-work activities from July to December in districts where general distributions had been phased out.

Towards the end of 2001, favourable rainfall was reported in most arable areas of western Kenya, in those adjacent to Mt Kenya, in the centre of the country, and in Eastern Province, according to the agency's latest emergency update on Friday, 28 December 2001.

However, rainfall was generally unsatisfactory in the marginal agricultural areas of Coast Province in the east, while uncharacteristic and excessive rains during parts of October and November in key grain-growing areas of Rift Valley Province had interrupted harvesting, it added.

The preliminary findings of recent assessments presented to the Kenya Food Security Steering Group on 18 December showed that food security prospects had improved in most of the pastoral areas - where herdsmen were anticipating improved productivity of their livestock - as well as in the severely drought-affected marginal agricultural areas, WFP reported.

However, "a complete recovery is unlikely to be achieved [in the near future] given the impact of the extended drought for the last five consecutive [rainy] seasons," it added.

WFP would still be dispatching 27,000 mt of food for joint November/December distributions to over 1.5 million people in 13 drought-affected districts, the agency reported.

The distribution was completed in most districts except for Mandera and Wajir, North Eastern Province, where heavy rainfall had rendered the road between Wajir and Garissa temporarily impassable. Violent rains and flash floods had also blocked other roads, such as that between Garissa and Dadaab (also in North Eastern Province), it added.

Given a shortfall in the food pipeline for the Kenyan emergency operation of some 60,000 mt of food, the government had contributed 10,000 mt of maize to the WFP operation, according to the agency's report.

A cash donation from a different [unnamed] donor would be used to cover the associated costs of the Kenyan government contribution, and to purchase 5,000 mt of cereals within the country, it added.

Despite obvious food needs, NGOs and communities have warned against an over-emphasis on the food-aid approach, and that communities need integrated assistance to help restore household food security.

This included, for instance, competitively-priced agricultural inputs (seeds, tools, fertilisers), the rehabilitation of herds and water sources, and the improvement of security, especially in pastoralist areas, according to humanitarian sources.

Among the broader factors highlighted in a study undertaken by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Kenyan government to explain the particular severity of the effects of drought in Kenya in 1999 and 2000, were:

the breakdown of traditional coping methods; an unsustainable land tenure system that was increasing population numbers on reduced land areas due to development of land formerly used for dry-grazing; poor security, especially in arid and semi-arid areas; and inadequate preparedness.