Food crisis looms in the west and north

Over 200,000 people in two semiarid districts in western and northwestern Kenya are facing serious food shortages after failed rains almost wiped out harvests, according to church organisations working in the area. In West Pokot District, in western Kenya, the poorest seasonal rains since 1984 had contributed to a 97 percent fall in maize production levels, meaning some 160,000 people would be "extremely food insecure" for at least the next three months, a report by Action by Churches Together (ACT) warned last week. "The amount [of rain] received was neither adequate to sustain planted food crops nor support the regeneration of pasture and browse for livestock," the report said. "This has led to a near-total crop failure, with mixed farming zones realising less than 10 percent food harvest." Because West Pokot benefits from only one planting season a year, failure of the rains meant food shortages would continue unless the district received some unexpected rainfall, it added. A rapid assessment carried out in November on behalf of ACT suggested that the number of food-insecure people in the district was therefore expected to rise to a maximum of around 220,000 between April and July 2003, before falling to around 120,000 at the time of the next harvest season in October. As a result of the persistent dry conditions, hundreds of pastoralists and agro-pastoralists had relocated their livestock to neighbouring Trans-Nzoia District and to Uganda, thereby compromising food security for the family members left behind. In Turkana District, in northwestern Kenya, some 69,000 people were in "dire need" of relief food, while an additional 13,000 children under five years would require supplementary feeding, partly as a result of a deterioration in dry season grazing areas. "Most surface water sources are drying up, forcing pastoralist communities to migrate," ACT said. The situations in both West Pokot and Turkana warranted "urgent humanitarian intervention", the report concluded. The scarcity of adequate pasture had also had the effect of threatening security in the area, as the movement of large herds of livestock was creating tension between neighbouring communities in Turkana and West Pokot.