Hunger in West Pokot and Turkana

A number of churches and church-based NGOs have launched an appeal for almost 240,000 people in "urgent need of food aid" in West Pokot and Turkana, in western and northwestern Kenya. "Almost 50 percent of the population are suffering from malnutrition, it's worsening every day," Anglican Bishop Stephen Kewasis of Kitale Diocese told IRIN on Thursday. "Many people will surely die of hunger." An assessment mission conducted in November 2002 by the Nairobi Action by Churches Together (ACT) forum reported that in West Pokot "a near total crop failure has occurred, with farming zones realising less than 10 percent of their harvest". The previous season's rainfall had been the worst ever experienced since 1984, the report said. The 2002 harvest season, normally from September to October, registered a 97 percent drop in maize production, the report continued, due to poor rainfall. Hundreds of pastoralists and agro-pastoralists had relocated their livestock - a key source of food - to neighbouring Trans-Nzoia District and Uganda, further complicating the household security of remaining family members, who were mainly children, women and the elderly. In Turkana, a rapid rise in malnutrition was reported in the divisions of Lokori, Kakuma and Lokitaung, which was particularly severe in households that had not recovered from a previous drought in 2000. An increased number of livestock and animals were for sale in Turkana, and prices had dropped from US $12 in September 2002 to $9 in October. Meanwhile, the prices of legumes and cereals had risen. Reduced water volumes in seasonal rivers - a key source of irrigation - had also "severely hampered" farming activities. Peter Mbae Njogu, the programme coordinator for Norwegian Church Aid, told IRIN the appeal should have been launched in 2002, but that the government had delayed it. "It was due to the elections [held on 27 December] and because they didn't believe there was a problem," he said. "The new government is more concerned." A spokeswoman from the World Food Programme (WFP), Paulette Jones, told IRIN on Friday that WFP planned to conduct an assessment of the regions in February. She confirmed that 8,000 bags of maize - from the Office of the President - was to have been delivered to the area before Christmas, but had been delayed for logistical reasons, and due to the elections. "There is food, but it's a question of distribution," she said, describing the current situation as a "localised short-term problem". The long drought situation in Kenya, which began in 1999, was reported to have ceased by mid-2002, with notable improvements in pastoralists' food security in most districts. Following good weather reports, the Kenya Food Security Steering Group endorsed plans to phase out emergency food distributions in West Pokot and Turkana from March 2002. By the end of September, free food distributions had ceased entirely. The ACT comprises Norwegian Church Aid, DanChurch Aid, Christian Aid, National Council of Churches of Kenya, Lutheran World Federation, Lutheran World Relief, Church World Service, Anglican Church of Kenya and the Methodist Church in Kenya.