1.6 million Kenyans in need of food relief

Nearly 1.6 million Kenyans are still hungry even as heavy rains pound the country. The food shortage is due to inadequate rains last year and four poor harvest seasons.

The Kenya Food Security Steering Group said in a report that pastoralists in Mandera, Wajir, Isiolo, Marsabit districts were most affected. The report says lack of proper rains between October and December last year was to blame.

Parts of Kwale, Kilifi and Malindi districts received “mediocre” rains and the region faced a “pessimistic” March-May long rains forecast. “Close attention is therefore required to forestall heightened food insecurity,” says the report.

Last week, President Kibaki, in a special issue of the Kenya Gazette, declared the country was facing prolonged drought even as weathermen predicted that there will be heavy rains in most regions until May.

The President described the prolonged drought as “a national calamity or disaster”. But the food security group says that it was not all doom and gloom and that other parts of the country had had “major food security improvements”.

The food shortages that started in 2007 had faded after improved short rains and with the onset of the current rains, only 1.6 million needed food aid, from a high of 3.8 million last year.

“Improvements in food security are likely to continue through the long rains season, following an optimistic forecast by the Meteorological Department,” according to the report.

In various parts of the country, food crops worth millions of shillings have been rotting on farms, especially in Kenya’s grain basket region – the Rift Valley – because farmers cannot access markets due to the heavy rains that have left many roads impassable.