Bowls of free food keep children in schools

• Lunch-time queues get longer in the wake of biting hunger and ravaging drought

Mr Githua Kaburu, the officer in charge of the school feeding programme, said supplies had run out in 82 schools in Turkana Central and Koima districts, where over 60,000 pupils relied on relief rations for survival.

He said that if the supplies were not replenished soon enough, the children were likely to drop out of school and join their parents in the search for a livelihood.

Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka has asked the Ministry of Education to ensure constant supply of relief rations to schools in drought-hit regions, but this is unlikely to happen if the current situation persists.

Mr Musyoka, whose constituency has been badly hit by the drought, said it was sad that, in some areas, students had started dropping out of school, yet the school feeding programme existed.

And it has emerged that more children living in the slums have dropped out of school because of the food crisis that hit the country last year.

A report by Oxfam International released last week said that the number of child labourers has increased by 30 per cent in the last year.

The report says that up to a third of students in the slum areas had dropped out of school to scavenge for food and recyclable waste material which they sell.

Some had dropped out to assist their parents to search for food and water.

The report also noted that the country had registered a 46 per cent drop in school meals, meaning fewer children are being fed in schools or can afford to bring their own lunch from home.

Oxfam attributes this to increasing poverty among the urban poor as the casual jobs they mostly rely on for survival have become scarce and irregular.

The UK charity indicates that another cause for concern is that considerably fewer children are attending the later stages of school in towns than in the rural areas.

The report says that coping under such circumstances, given that the costs of other non-food items such as basic health services, fuel and water have risen, also often involves reducing expenditure on necessities like water, soap, sanitation and education.

The urban crisis has intensified over the past year, with people now earning less but having to pay more to survive.

Household incomes have fallen due to the global economic crisis, with casual and long-term work harder to find as companies downsize operations.

Oxfam says a larger number of children and adults in slums are now engaged in the brewing and selling of illegal brews.