UNITED NATIONS TACKLES FOOD INSECURITY IN KENYA

United Nations TACKLES FOOD INSECURITY IN KENYA

NEW YORK, 22 July (OCHA) -- United Nations agencies will soon be appealing for international aid on behalf of the Kenyan Government, which has requested assistance to help overcome poor rainfall and severe crop failure.

Several years of inadequate rains in Kenya have led to a particularly poor cropping season, prompting Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki to declare a "national disaster”.  This year, in 5 out of the country’s 7 provinces, food production will be about 40 per cent of what is needed.  Additionally, the drought-like conditions in pastoral areas have already put close to 1 million people in severe food insecurity.

Currently, some 2.3 million persons will require a total of 136,000 metric tonnes of food for the next six months.  However, that number could increase up to 3.3 million if rain continues to be scarce.

Aggravating the situation are findings that Government reserves of grain, as well as stocks from the World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), are being afflicted by afflatoxin, a grain mould, which requires complete destruction of the stocks.

United Nations agencies working to ameliorate the situation include the WFP, which plans to appeal for food aid within the next few days; the UNICEF, which is responding to concerns over health, nutrition, water, sanitation and education; and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which is consolidating appeals for agricultural and livestock assistance.

For further information, please call:  Stephanie Bunker, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in New York, tel.:  1 917 367 5126, mobile:  917 892 1679; or Madelaine Moulin-Acevedo, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva, tel.:  +11 41 22 917 3160.

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