UN praises Kenya for hunger relief efforts

Kenya should be recognised for its “profound achievement” in preventing the worst regional drought in 60 years from causing famine among its own people, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon declared on Saturday.

The country also earned remarks from UN humanitarian aid director Valerie Amos for its “very generous” hosting of Somali refugees for the past 20 years. (Read: Kenya PM signs hunger pact)

But Ms Amos differed with Prime Minister Raila Odinga on how best to respond to the ongoing displacement of Somalis fleeing hunger and violence.

Speaking at a news conference at UN headquarters in New York, Mr Odinga suggested that donors should set up emergency camps inside Somalia.

He noted that Kenya's Dadaab complex now holds five times the number of refugees it was designed to accommodate.

The UN is “not in favour” of establishing camps across Kenya's border inside Somalia, Ms Amos said.

She pointed out, however, that relief agencies are trying to provide food, water and shelter in parts of Somalia.

Kenya has been under “a lot of pressure” to close its border with Somalia, Mr Odinga added at the news conference.

But the government has rejected that option on the grounds that it “would condemn innocent people to death.”

Also on Saturday, the World Bank and 13 donor nations pledged to provide a total of about $1.5 billion in new assistance to 13 million hungry Kenyans, Somalis and Ethiopians.

The bank announced it was more than trebling its aid, while a group of mainly European nations promised at a UN “mini-summit” on hunger in the Horn to add $218 million to the relief effort.

Even with those funds, humanitarian programmes in the Horn are still about $500 million short of the amount of funding the UN says is needed.