One in every three Kenyans is in danger of starvation in Kenya after harvests failed because of drought and also the post-election violence, which affected the country’s bread basket districts in Western, Nyanza and Rift Valley provinces.

The government declared a national emergency and will lift the import duty on maize until the next major harvest. The emergency declaration allows the government to divert money from development projects to food aid and to use disaster funds that are held in reserve, said government spokesman Alfred Mutua.

“It also opens ways for intervention from others,” said Mutua. “Our disaster emergency fund is getting depleted.” he added.

The 10 million Kenyans who are suffering food shortages include 1.5 million children under the school feeding program, 2.5 million people suffering from various diseases including HIV and Aids and orphans, and further 2.5 million poor people in towns.

Peter Smerdon, the spokesman for U.N.’s World Food Program (WFP), told the media that WFP is currently feeding 1.2 million people in Kenya. “We do expect the numbers in need to increase significantly,” he said.

The Kenyan government last declared state of emergency because of hunger was more than four years ago.

January 10th, 2008 | Tags: alfred mutua, hunger, kenyan government, peter smerdon, starvation in kenya, state of emergency, u.n.'s world food program, wfp | Category: Ecology & Outdoors, Life and Society | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL