Flash Appeal Seeks $97 Million for Starving Kenya

NAIROBI, Kenya, August 11, 2004 (ENS) - Erratic rainfall has caused massive crop failure in Kenya, prompting Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki to declare a national disaster in July. At the same time, a harmful grain mold, aflatoxin, has contaminated some of the grain that was harvested, forcing the government to destroy some of its own grain reserves.

The United Nations and the Kenyan government Tuesday appealed to the world to quickly raise nearly $US97 million to get food and basic supplies to starving Kenyans.

"We are appealing to all Kenyans of goodwill as well as our friends to assist those affected by these natural calamity in anyway possible," Kibaki said, "The government is doing its best to ensure that no Kenyan dies on account of hunger.

President Mwai Kibaki (left) has a word with Vice President Moody Awori.(Photo courtesy State House Kenya)

"You only have to visit these parts of Kenya to see with your own eyes how in many cases the maize crop has wilted under the sun after the failure of the long rains in May this year - it is now essentially useless," said World Food Program Kenya Country Director Tesema Negash. People are struggling to provide enough food for their families."

The appeal covers the six months between August 2004 and February 2005. The money is needed for food, health and nutrition, water and sanitation, education, agriculture and livestock, as well as coordination and support services the agencies said.

Food production in five out of Kenya's seven provinces will only cover about 40 percent of what is needed this year. The total food needed for the next six months is about 166,000 metric tons.

As well as distributing food and basic supplies to the hardest hit districts, humanitarian organizations plan to provide seeds to agricultural areas where crop losses have eroded seed stocks.

Kenya has been facing one of the worst aflatoxin outbreaks in the world because of poor post-harvest management and storage of cereals, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This grain mold makes cereals unfit for consumption and has led to more than 100 deaths since May 2004.

An FAO project valued at $750,000 will support community aflatoxin prevention strategies and promote alternative storage options prior to the next harvest.

According to Bruce Isaacson, FAO representative in Kenya, "With the short-season rains coming in October, vulnerable households do not have the capacity to assure their future well-being without assistance. FAO sees the need for urgent intervention to preserve and rebuild the livelihoods of affected people and to reduce the causes of food insecurity."

If the short rains are poor later in the year, an additional one million people will require food assistance in 2005, bringing the total needing food assistance in Kenya in 2005 to 3.3 million.

The youngest children are the ones most vulnerable. (Photo by Vanessa Wick courtesy WFP)

Many people are missing meals to preserve food stocks and children are skipping school to assist their parents in the hunt for food, said Negash.

Water scarcity is forcing wild animals from their game parks and they are damaging vital crops in their search for food and water.

"We are facing a crisis on a massive scale which will spiral out of control at great human cost if we do not act now," said Negash. "For many Kenyans, two poor seasons in a row will spell disaster if they do not receive assistance on time."

United Nations agencies working with the Kenyan Government to ameliorate the situation include the World Food Programme (WFP), which is helping to coordinate food aid; the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), which is responding to concerns over health, nutrition, water, sanitation and education; the World Health Organization (WHO), which is also working to address health-related, nutritional and educational needs; the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which is coordinating assistance to the agriculture sector; and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which is leading the international response.