Warning over Kenya drought

Agencies fear food supplies could run out by the end of the month

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Aid agencies in Kenya have warned that the international community is responding inadequately to a drought crisis.

They say that despite more than four million Kenyans being at risk of starvation there have been few pledges of aid to an appeal for $89 million by the Kenyan Government and the U.N.'s World Food Program (WFP).

The 42 aid agencies warn the drought situation has become desperate and WFP said on Wednesday that food supplies could run out by the end of the month.

"This has been the worst drought that Kenya has faced in living memory. Assessments show that as many a 4.4 million people will require food aid in Kenya until the end of the year. News that food will run out by May is disastrous" said Emma Naylor, humanitarian program coordinator for Oxfam.

Despite recent rainfall in some parts of the country, food shortages in Kenya's north and east remain acute.

Rural communities have been deprived of their only source of livelihood as farmers struggle to recover from recent crop failures and the loss of hundreds of thousands of livestock.

The aid agencies said the donor community responded well to similar appeals last year and urged them not to fall victim to aid fatigue until the food crisis was over.

"We know it is tough to keep responding over and over again," said Alloys Omolo of the aid agency CARE, "but donors should realise that if they don't support this appeal, the positive impact of their earlier response will be wasted."

Reuters contributed to this report.

Drought leaves Kenyans in need of food aid
July 23, 2000
Starvation stalks East Africa as drought drags on
April 8, 2000
Eastern Africa caught in vicious weather cycle
February 14, 2000

KenyaWeb
United Nations
World Food Programme
Oxfam
CARE

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