Government, aid agencies distribute food in drought-hit districts

The government, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and several NGOs have started distributing food to communities facing severe food shortages as a result of prolonged drought in the northern district of Marsabit and Turkana district in the northwest, a famine alert network reported. The two districts had been hit by successive droughts that caused the deaths of a large number of livestock, the mainstay of people's livelihoods in those areas, a food security update prepared in April by the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS-Net) said on Thursday. A total of 7,800 mt of food would be distributed to 230,678 people in the two districts between April and July, FEWS-Net added. According to the report, the government was also finalising an agreement with World Vision International (WVI) to distribute food to 10 areas in the central and southern parts of Turkana District from May to July. WFP would also initiate another programme in selected central and southern divisions from May. The Kenyan government was expected to pledge 3,000 mt of maize towards WFP's Turkana operation, the report said. Approximately 1,500 mt of maize would be distributed in 2004 and 1,500 mt retained to cover the January to March 2005 lean season, it added. Meantime, OXFAM was distributing food to an additional four divisions of Turkana District over a three-month period using a government of Kenya food donation and a cash donation from Britain's Department for International Development (DFID). Cash-for-Work activities would be implemented as food insecurity lessens. FEWS-Net added that prospects for improved food security among eastern pastoralists and agro-pastoralists in western Kenya were improving following favourable rains in April. Water and pasture availability had significantly improved and the pastoralists had started their seasonal migration to traditional homes in the wet season grazing areas. Elsewhere in Kenya, heavy rains in the highland areas of western region continued during the last week of April, causing severe flooding in the Lake Victoria basin. In Nyando, Migori and Rachuonyo districts, an estimated 3,250 people had been displaced and 3,500 ha of crops destroyed, FEWS-Net said. The report noted that the food security situation for the majority of Kenyans hinged critically on the outcome of the 2004 long-rains season. Favourable rains across most of the country, including in some of the worst-affected pastoral, agro-pastoral and marginal agricultural districts, should improve production prospects during the long-rains season, it observed.