Pastoralists face food shortages in 2002

Despite a "generally favourable" 2001 short rains season, food insecurity will persist in many of Kenya's pastoral areas in 2002, and many households will remain extremely susceptible to disaster, according to a recent report prepared by the Office of the Kenyan President (OP) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP).

"It must be stressed.... that after intermittent or continuous drought since late 1999, recovery is not immediate in the pastoral livelihood zones," the OP and WFP said in the "Kenya Short Rains Assessment 2001".

Of particular concern were areas within the pastoral zones where the size of livestock herds had been hit by years of drought, the El Nino weather patterns, and low-level conflicts, the report said.

In much of Turkana District (northwestern Kenya), Mandera District (northeastern Kenya) and in parts of Marsabit District (northern Kenya), herd sizes were currently too small to provide households with an adequate income and diet, it added.

Although good rains had been received in the northern and western areas of Turkana, pastoral communities in the district were "far from recovery," the report said. In these areas, the animal stocks, on which people relied heavily, had been "decimated", and milk consumption and income from animal sales would remain limited until June 2002.

"Reasonable 2002 Long Rains will bring an improvement in the food security situation, but these people face a substantial and prolonged shortfall of food consumption," the OP and WFP said in the report.

Although the short rains season, which normally begins in early October, had been delayed in 2001 by one to two weeks in most locations, most areas of the country had subsequently received abundant rains from mid-October to mid-November, it added.

Overall, most areas of Kenya were starting to recover from the severe drought of 1999-2000, and the general food security situation had improved when compared with the same time last year, the report said. The emphasis on food-security interventions for 2002 for most of the populations in the assessment should therefore be on longer-term recovery, it added.

"More effort should be invested in helping the poor to achieve self-reliance and in ensuring that communities are more resilient to future episodes of drought," the report said.