AFRICANEWS

KENYA

Starvation stalks millions

KENYA is facing a serious food shortage and will have to import a third of its total food requirements. Deaths have been reported and as the SOS goes out, the lives of three million Kenyans are at risk.

KENYA is facing a serious food shortage and must import a third of its total food requirements. This East African nation is facing its worst food crisis since the 1992/3 drought when the country was forced to import yellow maize from the United States.

Unlike then - when the government took drastic steps - it took the prodding of the churches for President Moi government to acknowledge the existence of famine in various parts of the country.

Hardly two hours after 23 Catholic Bishops addressed an international Press conference at the Nairobi Catholic Secretariat than a statement was read by the government-controlled Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) informing Kenyans that the "president had declared a national calamity or disaster" following "current period of prolonged drought".

The statement not only acknowledged the existence of the famine but confirmed that Kenyans fear the country was on the pangs of a major food shortage. The shortage comes less than a year after the scandal-ridden National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) exported 4 million bags of maize, the country's staple food, after the country's political elite flooded the local market with undutied maize imports in 1995.

Surprisingly, for an organisation that is supposed to maintain a 3 million bag strategic reserve, the board was caught unawares and neither had the money nor the maize in its reserves.

Indeed, the NCPB admitted that it had less than a million bags of maize in its stores and is now inviting tenders for the supply of maize from the international market.

To alleviate the famine, Kenya best known in the world for its coffee, tea and wildlife, with a population of 27 million, will have to import an estimated 7.1 million bags of maize and 2.7 million bags of beans.

The private sector is to import 4.1 million bags of maize and 2.5 million bags of beans while the government will import 2 million bags of maize for famine relief, a million bags of maize for strategic reserves and 300,000 bags of beans.

Further, the government has increased of the capital base of the contingency fund from Shs 30 million to 2 billion, formed the National Famine Relief Fund, and invoked draconian emergency laws to cope with the situation.

The declaration of the famine as a national disaster allows finance minister to waive duty and Value Added Tax on importation of certain foods like maize, milk, rice and beans. Critics fear that some well-connected people may take advantage of the declaration to make a quick kill out of the misfortune of the starving Kenyans.

Poor Planning

"If the next rains in March and April fail, we will have a big problem", says WFP Director in Kenya Mike Sackeet.

During 1996/97, Kenya's harvest hit an all time low. Maize production in the country dropped from an annual average of over 30 million bags to 22 million bags while beans harvest dropped from five million bags to 2.3 million bags.

Analysts however say that the poor weather is not primarily to blame for the supply shortfall; They blame poor planning and a hostile policy environment instead.

Many farmers, for instance have quit farming maize after the NCPB failed to pay them for deliveries made in 1994/95. Many farmers have also shifted to more profitable crops like sunflower after the prices of maize plummeted in 1995 following massive importations of maize that did not pay duty.

"Government incompetence is to blame for the famine, not the weather," says a Nairobi-based agricultural economist.

Agriculture minister, Darius Mbela says that once the projected stocks have been imported the (famine) situation will be reviewed to determine whether the country needs further imports.

The WFP has launched an emergency operation in the worst-hit eastern and north eastern districts estimated to cost Shs 674 million (US$ 12.5m). The majority of the assistance would be distributed to the pastoral districts of Garissa, Mandera, Marsabit, Isiolo and Wajir.

As early as September last year, a US Agency for International Development (USaid) report sounded a food alarm and estimated then that 1.4 million Kenyans would require food aid. It also warned that Kenya would need to import at least 10 million bags of food grains in the 1996/97 year which is 200,000 tonnes more than FAO previously forecast.

A special FAO news alert published in January this year estimated that three million Kenyans may be at risk as news of deaths start to trickle.

Politics in the face of Calamities

Kenya's faction-ridden opposition has reacted sharply to the tough law arguing that the move was of no use and was "an abuse of presidential powers".

"Famines have not required the application of the preservation of the public security act. A sledge hammer is used to kill a fly", said human rights lawyer Dr Gibson Kamau Kuria.

The Democratic Party (DP) Secretary-General Joseph Munyao said, "The only aim for these provisions is to stop Kenyans and diplomats from going around to assess the situation for themselves and stopping the press from exposing the suffering Kenyans are undergoing."

In a swift rejoinder the ruling party, Kanu, accused the opposition of "getting jittery". "They are crying wolf. They are political propagandists...whoever is expressing alarm at these regulations is an opposition activist", the party Secretary-General, Joseph Kamotho said dismissively.

The opposition has accused the government of planning to use the powers to rig the forthcoming general elections and is using the famine as an excuse to invoke the "state of emergency laws".

"We are satisfied up to the point President Moi declared the famine a national disaster. But when he invokes the Preservation of Public Security Act which we associate with control of peoples rights and freedom, we fail completely to understand its linkage with the need to control famine", said Nairobi University lecturer and gender activist, Maria Nzomo.

But the government is unfazed. In a statement, it accused the "the Opposition (of) misinterpreting the declaration (thus) jeopardizing the ability of willing international aid and relief agencies ...to readily mobilise support to supplement the governments efforts". The statement further explained that "the invocation of the Preservation of Public Security Act was to enable the donors react to the famine situation expeditiously".

Few are convinced: "You do not need emergency powers to do what is good for the country since no-one will stop you...so there is no extra powers to have food distributed", lamented opposition Ford Kenya's Constitutional and Legal Affairs secretary, Pheroze Norwojee.

A long term projection

"Why do we have to wait for famine before we address the situation? We do not even have strategic reserves", wonders Kikuyu MP and unregistered Safina Party activist Paul Muite.

Kenya has been importing maize every year in the past six years except in 1995/ 6. Local agriculturists say that the country needs to increase its food production by at least three percent per annum to keep up with the population growth which is one of the highest in the world.

| CONTENTS | AFRICANEWS HOMEPAGE |

AFRICANEWS - Koinonia Media Centre, P.O. Box 8034, Nairobi, Kenya
tel/fax: 254.2.560385 - e-mail: afrinews@freeworld.it
AFRICANEWS on line is by Enrico Marcandalli