We have weathered many droughts and this one too will come and go - this seems to be the thinking dominating the government’s food security meetings. That is because while a string of studies have predicted droughts will now be common in East Africa, little has been done to mitigate the effects.
The region is now facing one of its worst droughts in history. Last week, the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that about 10 million people across Eastern Africa are facing a severe food crisis.
The report attributes the drought to rainfall failure in the last three consecutive farming seasons. The result has been increased child malnutrition rates amid high food prices even in areas expecting some harvests. In Kenya, Special Programmes minister Esther Murugi says the number of drought-stricken people is five million. “We are sending relief food in all those areas,” she told the Star.
This is an increase of about three million above the two million people who are almost perennially on a relief food programme supported by the ministry and the World Food Programme. The drought in Kenya was predicted early last year by the Meteorological department following heavy El Nino rains.
But
in January this year, the government admitted failing to heed the Met’s
warning. Government Spokesman Alfred Mutua said concerned sectors
failed to plan in advance despite early warnings of an expected La Nina
season.
“It is clear that we in government have failed and we have
embarrassed ourselves because we didn’t have to wait until the last
minute,” Mutua said. “Why can’t we be like other countries that plan in advance even if it is six months earlier?” The
hunger crisis now mirrors a huge wildfire with the government and a
handful of NGOs rushing to put it out with basketfuls of water.
A
food security survey released two weeks ago shows about 3.5 million
people in the country will be starving by end of this month unless they
receive relief food urgently.
The Kenya Food Security Update survey, produced by Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fews Net), the World Food Programme and the Ministry of Agriculture, says in some areas hungry families are still waiting for relief food, three months after the drought set in. “Food insecurity is expected to quickly deteriorate to the crisis level in August because planned food distributions have been erratic,” said the report. Fews Net is an information system run by Usaid to identify problems that lead to famine in sub-Saharan Africa, Afghanistan, Central America, and Haiti.
Last month’s survey on Kenya shows water scarcity has also reached “precarious” levels with hundreds of starving women spending entire nights at communal water sources because demand is outstripping supply. The problem is worse in North Eastern Kenya where people are competing with animals for water, the report says.
Experts
are now strongly advising the government to increase irrigation as the
dry conditions will be experienced more frequently.
Indeed, data
from Tegemeo Institute of Nakuru-based Egerton University shows that
Kenya’s maize production has been falling since 2006 from an all time
high of over 34 million bags in 2006 to about 25 million bags in 2008. Ministry
of Agriculture Permanent Secretary Romano Kiome says the drought has
increased the country’s total maize deficit to about 17 million bags.
He says it is expected that farmers will produce between 20 and 25 million bags this year. The country requires about 37 million bags of maize each year. Kiome said the deficit will have to be imported. “This weighs heavily on the food security situation in Kenya, a country where food security is generally equated with availability of and access to adequate supplies of maize,” says information compiled by Tegemeo Institute.
Tegemeo is Egerton’s research arm, mainly in agriculture, rural development, natural resources and environment.
The institute also recommends non rain-fed farming because rains have been dwindling.
Meteorology
department shows that in the last four months, most arid areas in Kenya
received between 10 and 50 per cent of their average March to May long
rains.
The largest deficits are northern and eastern pastoral districts of Wajir, Marsabit, Isiolo, northern Garissa, northern Tana River, Mandera, Ukambani and Tharaka.
Although areas like Malindi, Kwale, Kilifi and Taita Taveta received favourable rains in the last four months, they are still seen as “food stressed”. Further, farmers in parts of Kitui, Mwingi, Makueni and Tharaka districts are anticipating a near total crop failure because of poor rains. The Fews Net report says distribution of relief food has been erratic and families in areas like Kajiado and Trans Mara are surviving on borrowed food and taking foodstuffs from shops on credit. “The lack of livestock products, exceptionally high food prices, and declining terms of trade are constraining pastoralist’s ability to access adequate food,” says the Kenya Food Security Update.
In Taita Taveta, Kwale
and parts of Meru North, wild animals have ravaged farms and this may
also culminate in total crop failure, it says.
The government admits between three and five million people face starvation and has mounted relief efforts in many places.
A
total of 2.4 million people in north Eastern are receiving relief food
assistance from WFP and the government but the number is expected to
rise over the coming months.
At the same time, tens of thousands of refugees from Somalia are streaming across the border to the country every day because of fighting and biting hunger in Somalia. Most of them are settling in camps at Dadaab. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says the hunger in Somalia has reached “human tragedy of unimaginable proportions”, and that young children are dying on their way to or within a day of arrival at camps in Kenya. It estimates this is the worst drought in the country in 60 years and has been compounded by violence. “It’s so extreme,” UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said in Geneva. “Our people are saying they’ve never seen anything like it.” Badu Katelo, Kenya’s Commissioner for Refugee Affairs, told the BBC the security situation was getting worse. “We would like to see a vibrant, committed intervention from the international community,” he said last week.
This
is pilling pressure in the northern part of Kenya, where the government
and WFP are still struggling with the local population.
Other measures being taken include importation of genetically modified maize from South Africa. This is because shortage has led to doubling of prices and many families now cannot afford maize flour. The
government has already gazetted the Biosafety Act and published its
regulations but the National Biosafety Authority says the earliest
imports can only come in October.
But according to Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture chairman John Mututho, these foods cannot feed the entire country.
He is among MPs advocating for irrigation in the country to stem future crises. This,
Mututho says, will end the culture of waiting for droughts to come and
go. “With climate change, it will no longer be business as usual,” he
says.
