Special Correspondent Philip Ngunjiri, who accompanied a group of visiting Members of Parliament to Kenya’s drought-stricken district of Mandera, reports on the debilitating effects of a famine that has caused widespread suffering and malnutrition
By PHILIP NGUNJIRI
Special Correspondent
WITH HER EYES WIDE OPEN – almost popping out – a severely malnourished two-year-old baby girl stares blankly into the horizon. An inaudible whining sound almost gives the impression that an intravenous needle piercing her bony right thigh is the cause of her pain. Another emaciated 10-month-old boy lies next to her on a mat along the pavement suffering from tuberculosis.
These were some of the scenes that met some of the visiting MPs attending the Inter-Parliamentary Union conference that was held in Nairobi earlier this month when they visited the Mandera District Hospital’s therapeutic feeding centre in the Kenya’s Northeastern province. The delegates, who were from the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and European Union segment of the conference, were visiting the EU’s projects in the district.
The two children are among 70 already admitted to the health facility, mostly suffering from hunger brought about by a scorching drought that has ravaged most of Kenya north. The children, all aged below five, are also suffering from other illnesses, including malaria and water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea and vomiting. On various occasions, children have rushed to the feeding centre only to die because it was already too late to save their lives.
Records by aid workers indicate that cases of malnutrition have tripled during the past three to five months as milk supplies dropped sharply due to the increasing livestock deaths.
“It is true,” said Glenys Kinnock, almost to herself as she stretched her hand to touch a baby’s hollowed cheek, but the baby’s gaze remained fixed. “This is unacceptable, especially in a country whose MPs are among the most highly paid in the world.” Ms Kinnock, a Labour Party MP from the United Kingdom, is also the co-president of the ACP-EU joint parliamentary assembly of the IPU.
She was the leader of the delegation of MPs who, apart from inspecting EU-funded projects and programmes, also met local beneficiaries and aid implementors.
“Our first-hand experience here will enable us have a better opinion on the best way forward,” said Roy K. Chulumanda, an MP from Zambia. How I wish we had brought along the sweet-talking vice president with us. I wonder what he would have said about this.” He was referring to Kenya’s eloquent Vice President Moody Awori, who a day earlier had painted a rosy picture about how well the country was coping with the drought situation.
Other MPs in the delegation included Barry Faure of Seychelles, Joseph Kamotho of Kenya and Jurgen Schroder of Germany.
After the day’s tour, all members of the delegation agreed that there was need to ensure integrated long-term strategic approaches were rushed with the current crisis response. This would assist in breaking the cycle of vulnerability and food insecurity.
“Though very important, short-term measures such as food and medicine distribution are not enough. What are needed are sustainable programmes. We are willing to advance the local people’s cases and I’m sure they will be given special consideration for funding,” said Ms Kinnock. “I strongly urge the local leaders and people to come together and prioritise their needs. We are willing to accord a favourable ear.”
They added that the residents needed to focus more on long-term rehabilitation of water and sanitation facilities to avoid more deaths through disease.
The MPs urged the local communities to make use of River Daua, which runs along the Kenya-Ethiopia border. “Now that the flow of the river has resumed, the water should be used by farmers to irrigate their farms for subsistence, pasture and fodder production. We’ll definitely support the project,” said Ms Kinnock.
WHILE THE RAINY season has been so far good in drought-affected areas, the resulting floods have destroyed crops, homes and infrastructure. The rain has also brought with it the added threat of water-borne disease and sanitation problems, in some areas deepening the humanitarian crisis.
The situation has been further aggravated by underlying factors such as poverty, environmental degradation and marginalisation.
Ordinarily, the camel is the most drought-resistant animal in the arid north and can survive without water for almost a month. However, this time round, the animals were unable to survive the drought. Among the hundreds of carcasses littered in the area, the camel is well represented.
“When a camel dies for lack of water, then the situation is really bad,” said Adan Mohamed, the district drought management officer in the Ministry of Arid Lands. Mohamed comes from the area and his family lost over 300 cattle, goats and camels since the drought started ravaging the region towards the end of last year. Today, the family is left with only a dozen animals. “The family had no option but to move to Shafshafey Location, which is near a food distribution point,” he says.
Mohamed says that at the end of February, livestock keepers in Mandera had lost between 40 and 50 per cent of their herds. “Out of an estimated population of 290,000, about 60 per cent of the people have suffered livestock losses.”
Working in collaboration with aid agencies that include Care International, the Kenya Red Cross Society and Action Against Hunger (AAH), the government has been delivering water using tanks, but residents say this has been inadequate. “At times it is too late for our livestock,” says 56-year-old Aden Noor, a resident of Shafshafey location.
About three weeks ago, he says, hundreds of families have camped near Mandera town with their livestock. There, they have access to a borehole that is managed and run by aid agencies. They also benefit from monthly food aid distribution. “This has brought great strain to the boreholes, which are operating almost 24 hours daily.”
Lack of adequate food has been compounded by severe water shortage that have forced thousands of people to move to areas closer to roads, where the government and humanitarian agency water tankers can easily reach them.
In almost all food distribution centres, only maize is being distributed to the residents. This type of food, say most residents, hardly meets their nutritional requirements, especially for children whose weakened bodies cannot handle the stuff.
But the Mandera District Commissioner, Benjamin Nzioka, disputes these claims. “The great bulk of food requirements for the famine response has been met. Already, we are feeding 75 per cent of Mandera’s population; the rest of course are fending for themselves. The government is not only supplying local residents with maize grains, but we are also supplementing this with corn-soya blend, vegetable oil, vitamins, proteins, fat, medicine and mosquito nets.”
Food insecurity in Kenya remains severe in pastoral areas, according to the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The UN launched a regional appeal for the Horn of Africa earlier this month, requesting $443 million to support the urgent needs of more than eight million people. To date, the appeal has received pledges and contributions of $95 million.
Earlier in February, the government, UN agencies and NGOs had appealed for $245 million to feed an estimated 3.5 million people, including 500,000 children, who are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance in 25 districts. In the same month, WFP, which still requires $189 million for Kenya, distributed food aid to 183,336 people in Mandera – 63 per cent of the total population.
According to the USAid-funded Famine Early Warning System, the food security situation in Kenya’s most severely drought-affected pastoral districts, such as Mandera, deteriorated alarmingly, following poor long rains in March-June last year and the subsequent failure of the October-December short rains.
Source: The East Africa, May 29, 2006
