UN/Kenya seek $165 million as 3 million face starvation

By Magdalene Mukami

NAIROBI, Kenya

The United Nations and humanitarian partners have appealed for $165 million to mitigate effects of a drought endangering the livelihoods of nomadic pastoralists in northern Kenya.

According to government statistics, 3 million Kenyans are facing starvation in 23 out of Kenya’s 47 counties, while more than 357,000 pregnant women and children are acutely malnourished.

The UN Resident Coordinator in Kenya told a press conference Thursday that thousands of livestock and humans alike are starving and thirsty after three years of unreliable rain.

“Our flash appeal which is about 17 billion Kenya shillings covers areas where there are critical needs, for example in the areas of food, nutrition, water, sanitation, fodder for livestock,” Siddharth Chatterjee said at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi.

“This money from donors will help save lives in Kenya’s 47 counties which are affected by the drought that has been declared a national disaster,” he stressed.

Chatterjee underlined that the drought has resulted in large migrations of people, destroying livelihoods and spreading diseases due to water shortages.

“The UN appeal is primarily meant to compliment the work that the government is doing and to essentially make sure that no person should die,” he said.

“That is why it is a humanitarian appeal, we need to preserve livelihoods, we need to ensure that there is no malnutrition and undernutrition in Kenya.”

He noted that six counties in Kenya have reported Global Acute Malnutrition rates above 15 percent -- the global emergency threshold.

The drought has so far led to instability in Kenya, with pastoral communities fighting over grazing land.

As of Tuesday, 21 people have died in inter-communal conflicts in Baringo county that started last week.