KENYA: UNITED NATIONS LAUNCHES APPEAL TO FEED OVER FOUR MILLION KENYANS THREATENED WITH STARVATION
Record ID:
338007
KENYA: UNITED NATIONS LAUNCHES APPEAL TO FEED OVER FOUR MILLION KENYANS THREATENED WITH STARVATION
- Title: KENYA: UNITED NATIONS LAUNCHES APPEAL TO FEED OVER FOUR MILLION KENYANS THREATENED WITH STARVATION
- Date: 17th February 2001
- Summary: WAJIR DISTRICT, KENYA (RECENT - FEBRUARY 12, 2001) (REUTERS) 1. SCU/MV DECOMPOSING CARCASS OF A COW (2 SHOTS) 0.09 2. SLV/SCU WOMEN AND THEIR BABIES AT 'SAVE THE CHILDREN' FEEDING CENTRE (10 SHOTS) 0.56 3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) SAVE THE CHILDREN FUND RELIEF COORDINATOR JAN DEBYSER SAYING "It's still very much an emergency situation, outside conditions have not improved at all. People still haven't recovered from the last year's drought and loss of livestock so we need to continue assistance at least till the worst of the emergency is over." 1.14 3. SLV SACKS OF MAIZE DONATED BY WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME; SCU CHILDREN PLAYING ON SACKS; SCU SACK OF MAIZE LABELLED WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME (3 SHOTS) 1.30 4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME SPOKESPERSON LINDSEY DAVIES SAYING "We are going to be looking at feeding four million Kenyans and that makes it the third largest operation in the world. We've got an operation in Korea and Ethiopia and Kenya is third to those ones." 1.45 5. SLV PASTORALISTS WITH CATTLE AND CAMELS AT A RESERVOIR (3 SHOTS) 2.05 6. (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) WAJIR NORTH MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT HON DR. ADULAHI I. ALI SAYING "The problem of this area is negligence from the government, that is the first one of President Kenyatta and the one of Moi right now, and we don't expect any change unless the attitude of the government changes." 2.21 7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) SAVE THE CHILDREN FUND MOHAMED ABEY ADAN SAYING "These people have become endangered because what comes in is only emergency it's not a long term project. And this is needed to be taken care of, somebody to be rehabilitated for some time, and later he can depend on himself and that's why we see mothers coming back for the last five years and three years and every two years coming back to this situation." 2.39 8. SLV/MV/SCU TRADITIONAL DANCING BY KENYAN ETHNIC SOMALIS (3 SHOTS) 3.03 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 4th March 2001 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS WAJIR DISTRICT, KENYA
- Country: Kenya
- Reuters ID: LVA8X47GCACG7M570BTD7CTXDD16
- Story Text: The United Nations has launched an appeal to feed over
four million Kenyans threatened with starvation in the east
African country's worst drought in 60 years.
The sight of decomposing carcasses has been a common
sight in Wajir district in
the northern part of Kenya for the last three years.
The region has always been prone to drought, and with
most of their livestock dead and dying, the mainly pastoralist
population of Wajir, are surviving only on food aid.
Feeding centres run by NGOs like Save the Children
Fund are filled with malnourished children and mothers.
Even if it were to start raining, the pastures are worn out,
and it will take years for these women and their families to
fully return to their former way of life - centred around
raising camels, goats, and cattle. They lost most of their
herds in the El Nino floods of 1998, the remaining animals
died in the following drought.
"It's still very much an emergency situation. Outside
conditions have not improved at all. People still haven?t
recovered from the last years of drought and loss of livestock
so we need to continue assistance at least till the worst
of the emergency is over," says Jan Debyser of Save the
Children Fund.
With over 93 percent of the region or 300,000 people
destitute and dependent on food aid in just this region alone,
Kenya is now facing a major crisis. The World Food Programme
is sounding the alarm, and is appealing for more aid.
"We are going to be looking at feeding four million
Kenyans and that makes it the third largest operation in the
world, we've got an operation in Korea and Ethiopia and Kenya
is third to those ones," says World Food Programme
said spokesperson Lindsey Davies.
But the problems of the pastoralists in Northern Kenya
did not begin with the drought, or even the floods of 1998,
which ironically drowned thousands of animals. Ethnic Somalis
blame the decades of government indifference to the region
which has left the people feeling marginalised.
Many believe the government in Nairobi has deliberately
ignored the region, and that the roots of this attitide go
back to the 1960s when the Wajir District fournt a brief war
to secede from Kenya and join Somalia, just as Kenya won its
independence.
"We don't expect any change unless the attitude of the
government changes," said Wajir North Member
of Parliament Hon Dr. Adulahi I. Ali.
In areas like northern Kenya's Wajir district, an area twice
the size of Belgium, 93 percent of the population, around
300,000 people, will depend on food aid for at least the first
half of this year.
The drought has been so bad in Wajir that even the camels
are dying, WFP said.
The drought has had a devastating effect on Kenya's
economy, which is shrinking for the first time since
independence from Britain in 1963.
WFP said it had delivered 230,000 tonnes of food to more
than four million Kenyans in 2000, making it the third largest
emergency operation in the world behind North Korea and
Ethiopia.
The United Nations and the Kenyan government appealed for
$146 million in May last year.
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