Kenya: Humanitarian agency raises crisis alarm

  1. Posted on Wednesday 7 October 2009 - 10:00
    Purity
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    Purity Mwendwa Ndereva, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya
    A new report titled Pastoralist Voices has criticized the Kenyan government poor response and disaster preparedness policies risking the lives of millions of pastoralists in northern part of the country.
    kenya map
    The report carried out by the Kenya Food Security Steering Group (KFSSG) on behalf of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said, “The increasing vulnerability to food insecurity that pastoralists face stem from the failure to put the protection of pastoralists’ livelihoods at the centre of emergency response mechanisms.”

    According to the report emergency responses fail to prevent the recurrence of crisis, fail to support the capacity of the pastoral community to withstand the effects of shock and to adapt to the changing nature of shocks.

    The resource –based conflicts and number of related deaths are increasing monthly as the severity of the drought takes its toll in pastoral areas in Kenya the report indicates.

    The report said, “The recorded 15 deaths in January have increased every month to 19 deaths in February, 13 in March, 30 in June, 41 in July and 51 in August.”

    The report which was released October 2, said apart from shortage of food and water pastoralists mainly in Turkana, Mandera, Samburu, Baringo, Marsabit, Wajir, Moyale and Garissa districts also face increased cross-border resource-based armed conflict.

    The UN is blaming the quest for water and pasture aggravated by the proliferation of small arms for escalating conflicts in West Pokot and Turkana.

    Some 3.8 million pastoralists and 1.5 million children from these drought stricken areas are in need of emergency humanitarian assistance according to the agency.

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