KENYA: Food aid reaches Kenya's biggest slum as political crisis continues

Record ID: 361143

  • Title: KENYA: Food aid reaches Kenya's biggest slum as political crisis continues
  • Date: 16th January 2008
  • Summary: (BN13) NAIROBI, KENYA (JANUARY 15, 2008) (REUTERS) WIDE SHOT OF KIBERA RESIDENTS WAITING FOR FOOD AID VARIOUS OF WOMEN HOLDING THEIR BABIES WHILE WAITING FOR FOOD AID MORE OF WOMEN SEATED WHILE WAITING FOR FOOD AID
  • Embargoed: 31st January 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Social Services / Welfare
  • Reuters ID: LVAEVXAYTI77DD7VW6KHIHZYKX4L
  • Story Text: Kenya Red Cross distributes food aid to residents of the country's biggest slum area as the country remains in a political stand-off after the disputed December presidential elections.
    Kenya Red Cross distributed distributed food assistance on Tuesday (January 15) for nearly 77,000 people in Nairobi's slums hit by post-election violence.
    The food is from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the government of Kenya.
    This was the second distribution in four Nairobi slums within a week that reached an estimated 76,800 people.
    The government of Kenya provided cereals to the Kenya Red Cross (KRC) and WFP gave the pulses, high energy biscuits, vegetable oil and corn-soya blend for a full food basket.
    The distributions of one-week rations took place in Kibera, Mathare, Dandora and Korogocho slums.
    Representatives of families identified as especially in need by church-based groups and other partners were given ration cards and lined up at 11 sites in the slums to collect their food.
    Women who received food assistance today in Kibera said that the little food for sale in the slums had increased in price out of their reach in the past two weeks. Many said that they were unable to work and marauding gangs had burned down their ramshackle homes.
    Riots, ethnic clashes and looting erupted across the opposition strongholds, including the capital's sprawling shanty-towns, after President Mwai Kibaki was narrowly re-elected at Dec.27 polls his opposition challenger Raila Odinga says were rigged.
    An estimated 250,000 people have been uprooted and half a million may need aid.
    Of Nairobi's population of 2.75 million, almost 60 percent live in the city's slums.
    Even in normal times, almost two-thirds of the people in the slums struggle to survive on less than 1 U.S. dollar a day.
    Crime and violence are rife in the slums and basic services are scarce.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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