Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Huge Drought

Food supplies have started to dry up and prices for what remains have soared. School chidren are offered a free school meal and some children save the food they get at school to take home to their families.

The school cook mixes up wheat and split peas - provided by the United Nations World Food Programme. The result is a stodgy concoction served up to the hungry students. The UN is currently feeding more than a million Kenyan school children.

The drought and subsequent lack of pasture is estimated to have killed more than 100,000 cattle across Kenya. And, as herds become emaciated, it is getting harder for people to sell them. Thousands of cattle have died and the remaining stock fetches little at market.

Food prices have increased, as the poor harvests have led to a shortage of staple foods like white maize. And due to the shortage in the region, prices are likely to climb higher. In some of the markets across Kenya the maize price has doubled over the past year.

Many Kenyans spend more than half their income on food, so the price increases are hitting people hard. The number in need of food aid has shot up from 2.5 to 3.8 million.

The national grain reserves currently hold enough food for less than two months
. This comes after the Kenyan government was accused of involvement in a maize scandal in which grain was being sold to Sudan.

The WFP has just appealed for $230m (£141m) to provide emergency food assistance over the next six months.

source: Will Ross BBC News, Nairobi

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