From: barnhart@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Mr. Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS:KENYA: UNICEF STARTS FEEDING PROGRAMME IN DROUGHT AREAS
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 03:48:56 GMT
Organization: Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Reference: Agriculture; Africa, east
Title: KENYA: UNICEF STARTS FEEDING PROGRAMME IN DROUGHT AREAS


an inter press service feature

by horace awori

nairobi, oct 29 (ips) -- more than 300,000 children under five
years of age are threatened with starvation due to prolonged
drought in north-eastern kenya, according to the u.n.
children's fund (unicef).

the drought has devastated crops in 17 districts and unicef
currently provides supplementary feeding to about 175,000
children in nine of the seriously-affected districts.

over 1.5 million cattle worth 60 million dollars have also
perished under the drought in the traditionally-pastoral area.

in a report released here thursday, the u.n. agency says it
will be necessary to continue the supplementary feeding
programme, already underway in mandera, turkana, marsabit,
samburu, wajir isiolo, garissa, tana river, kitui and lamu
districts, until august 1993.

for the next 10 months, the agency said it will require
19,000 tonnes of food, estimated to cost 12 million dollars, in
order to maintain satisfactory levels of nutrition among the
children.

on the whole unicef has to raise 23 million dollars in order
to improve public health and livestock services in the
drought-hit north-eastern districts of kenya.

meanwhile, the kenyan government which tended to downplay
the severity of the situation has come under attack from
opposition party leaders in north-eastern province.

democratic party's organising secretary, ahmed abdi ogle, has
called on the international community to intervene and help the
drought-affected population out of ''imminent decimation''.

he accused the government of ignoring the plight of the
people in the area.

drought and famine are becoming key issues in the country's
politics in the run-up to presidential and general elections to
be held early next year.

''the dimensions of such a drought will be very disatrous
because the capacity of the victims to resist has been reduced
drastically'', noted khorsrow of the german technical
cooperation agency, gtz. (more/ips)


kenya: unicef (2)

through gtz, germany is funding a comprehensive three-year
project to ensure food security for the nomadic people of the
region.

but, according to said, there is a regular drought pattern
which calls for intensive recovery measures before the next
cycle. ''a food security plan (for the region) is necessary if
kenya is to avoid the emergence of landless rural poor people
who have no means of survival'', said the gtz official.

although unicef's report focuses on the needs of children,
1.5 million kenyans are now dependent on food relief as a result
of the drought.

kenya's food problems were also worsened by the influx of
about 500,000 refugees from conflict-ridden somalia, sudan and
ethiopia.

about 350,000 of the refugees are in camps located in the
drought-hit areas. they are provided emergency food rations by
the u.n. high commissioner for refugees (unhcr) and the world
food programme (wfp).

according to a joint assessment by the u.n. food and
agriculture organisation (fao) and wfp, drought victims in kenya
need 98,000 tonnes of relief food between september and december
this year.

about 60,000 tonnes have been pledged by various donors but
much of current deliveries of 28,000 tonnes are wfp's diversions
from its other programmes pending arrival of shipments intended
for kenya.

wfp has set aside 38,000 tonnes of food aid for 960,000
drought-affected persons in kenya.

part of the food has been airlifted to worst-affected areas
of wajir, garissa and mandera by u.s. military cargo planes
which have been ferrying loads of food relief from the kenyan
port of mombasa to war-torn somalia. (end/ips/ha/ar/apc/92)