2m at Coast face starvation

More than two million people at the Coast are at risk of food shortages. According to statistics obtained from the Kenya Red Cross Mombasa branch offices, 290,933 of these residents are already in need of food aid.

This represents 15.5 per cent of the 4.5 million population at risk nationally, making Coast the second most affected region. The Lower Eastern region with a population of 3,140,737 at risk, out of which 490,618 are in need of relief aid, is the most affected area in the country.

The Red Cross Mombasa branch chairman, Mr Francis Ngugi, said agro-pastroral and marginal agricultural livelihoods were most affected.

Mr Ngugi was speaking at his office after receiving a donation of Sh50,000 from the Lions Club Central Mombasa branch towards the famine kitty.

In the same region, more than 150,000 people in three districts in the North Coast cannot access the government subsidised maize flour at the National Cereals and Produce Board depot in Kilifi due to transport problems.

Civic leaders stormed the depot yesterday and demanded that means be found of taking the food to locations. They said it made no sense for a hungry person to spend about Sh600 on fare to go and buy a 5-kilogramme bag of flour.

A famine assessment report in Kilifi says that about 1,000 head of cattle have died due to lack of pasture and water. In Western Province, farmers have declined to deliver maize to the National Cereals and Produce Board, preferring to sell it to middlemen who offer higher prices.

Provincial commissioner Abdul Mwasera on Thursday warned of dire consequences unless farmers utilised the current rains to plant short-term growth crops. He said the NCPB depot in the region had not met its target of buying five million bags of maize.

Reported by Amina Kibirige, George Kikami and Bernard Kwalia