Oxfam urges action over Kenya food situation

Kenya’s food situation could worsen if urgent measures are not taken, an international organisation warns.

Oxfam, a relief organisation which has been contributing to alleviate hunger in parts of the North Eastern region, said that Kenya, just like the entire African continent needed to devise a new food system to secure its future.

In a programme launched Wednesday in Nairobi, the organisation seeks to collaborate with the government to address major issues associated with food scarcity.

“Africa and especially Kenya is capable of producing enough food to ensure all of our citizens have enough to eat. Yet every night, millions of people across the continent go to bed hungry,” said Irungu Houghton, Oxfam’s Pan Africa Director.

Oxfam blamed the incessant hungers in the country to poor and unfair land policies where the poor continue to live as squatters.

“Food is about power – those with power and money can eat, those without cannot. Africa is abundant with resources, yet governments fail to invest effectively in its biggest resources – its people and its land,” added Mr Irungu.

The country’s food situation has plummeted in the recent years owing to insufficient rains and rough climatic changes. Kenya depends on rainfall for much of its farming and livestock keeping.

On Monday this week, President Kibaki declared the drought in various parts of the country a national disaster. He ordered the Treasury to facilitate urgent imports of maize to boost the country’s strategic grain reserves. He also announced that Sh1.6 billion would be allocated to The Water and Irrigation and Livestock ministries.

But Oxfam says that much more needs to be done, including changing the approach to farming. In the Programme dubbed ‘GROW’, Oxfam said it will try to educate the public on newer methods of farming and how to slow down climatic changes, meant to realise a world with less incidents of starvation.

But while climatic changes have contributed greatly to the situation, Kenya which is a signatory of the 2003 Maputo Declaration has not been following the treaty. The Agreement by African countries compels each to set aside not less than 10 per cent of its total national budget for Agricultural activities. However, since 2005, Kenya has averaged at 6 per cent.

In its latest report Growing a Better Future, the Organisation warned that the reckless nature of the government in not considering Agriculture as key to the economy has caused “decades of progress against hunger being reversed.”

In Kenya, lobby groups have been protesting what they called government’s negligence in protecting the general public from high fuel and food costs.

The Consumer Federation of Kenya and various other NGOs have in fact filed a case in the High Court seeking to declare those responsible as failures and to compel the government to stabilise the prices.