Relief food yet to reach the hungry in Taita

• Traditional brews badly affected by maize shortage and absence of patrons

As the country grapples with the daunting task of feeding 10 million famine-stricken people, the fate of more than 110,000 in Taita hangs in the balance; the whereabouts of a huge consignment of famine relief maize allocated to the district a month ago remains unknown.

The government last month had allocated 2,000 bags of maize for distribution to starving families, but this has not been received at the National Cereals and Produce Board depot in Voi.

Education assistant minister Calist Mwatela said on Monday the allocation was just on paper and had not physically reached the NCPB stores.

The last time the district received famine relief food was two months ago while famine was spiralling out of hand as more and more people continue to need food aid.

Mr Mwatela said the food crisis was a national problem and accused the media of blowing the hunger situation in the district out of proportion. The MP has been severely criticised by his constituents for allegedly failing to address their plight.

“My people are very intelligent and have understood that famine is a national disaster and they cannot blame me on that. These claims that I have neglected my people are just but a creation of the media,” he said.

Mr Mwatela, the Mwatate MP, said he had toured various parts of the constituency but no one complained of neglected.

This comes at a time when desperate farmers have started cutting withered maize stalks to feed their livestock as they count their losses following the widespread drought.

Farmer Tobias Mwadime said he was relying on the maize stalks which he is selling to livestock farmers to buy food for his family of three children.

Speaking at his Mblinyi farm, Mr Mwadime said he had lost hope of harvesting anything as the crops had reached maximum wilting point.

“I have not seen the MP in this area since November last year, and if he has come here, he came for a personal visit,” he said.

A spot check by the Nation showed that posho mill operators were almost closing shop for lack of maize supplies.

Mr Faustine Cherenje, a posho mill owner at Kwa Mnengwa trading centre said the number of customers had drastically declined.

“I have in good times been able to grind up to 300 kilogrammes per day but this time even getting 50 kilogrammes is sheer luck,” he said.

He said the decline did not mean people had stopped eating, but that they were going without food or had resorted to alternative means of survival.

Most family members, and worse, the orphaned children in parts of Mwatate the survey revealed, survived on wild plants.

Traditional liquor trade is also badly affected, with brewers abandoning their business for lack of customers and maize germ, which is the major ingredient in brewing. Consumers of the traditional brew, mbangara, cannot go to the drinking dens when their families are starving.

A brewer, who declined to be named for fear of giving herself away to the police, said many of her customers had suspended drinking.

“For the 10 years, I’ve been in this business, I have never come across such a devastating food crisis that has killed my business, leaving me penniless and dependent on relief food which I’m not used to,” she said.

Indeed, one can hardly come across the usual ugly scenes of drunken men and women. Scenes of drunkards lying flat by the roadside as early as 8am are no longer witnessed.

It was also evident that the raging famine, coupled with the teachers’ strike had turned schoolchildren into roadside traders, hawking mangoes and other wares.

At Godoma village in Maktau Location, for example, six orphaned children who had gone for several days without a meal were picking cactus that local residents have turned to for survival.

“We feed on these wild fruits since there is nowhere else we can get food, especially at this time when schools are closed. We don’t get our food rations from the school feeding programme,” they said.

Godoma Primary School, which they attend, is among the few schools that have been benefiting from the programme that has enabled disadvantaged pupils get at least one meal a day.

Since the teachers’ strike started last week, several such children have been feeding on wild fruits. Community volunteer counsellor Beatrice Marura said the fruits were unfit for human consumption, but people had to quell hunger pangs for lack of an alternative.

“We have in this village taken four children to hospital suffering from abdominal complications after eating the unsavoury fruits,” she said.

She said four people had so far died in the area from hunger-related complications, claims government officials deny.

Mwatate district officer Wilfred Sigei said he was not aware of the deaths but confirmed that Godoma, Msorongo, Mwachabo and Kishamba were the areas worst hit by the famine.

Vulnerable children

Ms Marura accused the Government of neglecting the plight of orphans and vulnerable children, saying they were at highest risk of dropping out of school and engaging in anti-social activities like prostitution.

“We have informed the MP about the pathetic situation these particular children are living in, but he has not responded and has instead been saying the famine is a countrywide problem,” she said.

The last time the village benefited from famine relief food was in November last year when the residents were given two kilogrammes of food each.

Ms Marura said the food rations should be increased as the current ones were too insufficient to sustain the starving families.

She urged the government to device better and sustainable methods of improving food security to avert famine in future.

Another resident, Mr William Kidelo, urged the government to help the community tap water for irrigation as a lasting solution to food scarcity.

“Although our land is arid, it is very fertile and if we were helped harness the untapped water resources which are enough for us to produce sufficient food without relying on famine relief,” he said.

Mr Kidelo said he had unsuccessfully planted maize for the last two consecutive seasons due to failed rains.