As the on-going hunger continues to take its toll on millions of Kenyans, the Kenya Red Cross Society has launched a 17 million dollar fund to alleviate the situation for the next six months. Speaking during the launch of the drive on Friday, the society's Secretary General Abbas Gullet warned that unless measures are put in place, the continuing situation in many parts of hunger-prone areas could spark conflicts. “We are in the middle of a strong La-Nina spell. Migrating communities can clash at the scarce watering points. The government needs to urgently supply water and food to the pastoralists,” he added.

Abbas also disclosed that the society intends to raise the funds from UN agencies, the international community, development partners and donors. The initiative, dubbed The Kenya Drought Response Initiative, intends to provide food to over 1.8 million kenyans who are currently facing the risk of dying of hunger. Many parts of the upper Eastern and Northern Kenya are currently facing severe droughts occassioned by the La-Nina spell. Also faced with hunger are millions of livestock. Most of the affected people are those drawn from then pastoralist communities. Hundreds of thousands of emaciated women, children and livestock are in dire need of food and water.

The initiative launched by the Kenya red cross Society is one of the many intervention measures that it plans to undertake. Abbas said that this is just but one of the short-term plans aimed at mitigating against the situation. he added that his organisation intends to work with the Kenyan Government and other donor agencies to provide long term solutions to the recurrent famine that has been plaguing the people of the targeted areas. Last year, hundreds of thousands of livestock died as the government fumbled for solutions before the plans to purchase the animals from farmers were implemented. The prceeds from the red cross Society's campaign will go into school feeding programmes, provision of food rations to families and water for livestock.

The government of Kenya has been under attack from a section of the Kenyan media for ignoring the plight of the hunger stricken people. Last week, a spokesman from the Ministry of Planning down-played the severity of the situation, adding that it did not meet the standards of being a national disaster.

Somalia too, is a also faced with a similar situation, and this might trigger the influx of climate refugees into the Dadaab Refugee camp in Northern Kenya, whose infrastructure is already weighed down by the large number of refugees. Local communities too, might have to opt for food rations from the local UNHCR and WFP sub-offices.