United Nations launches Sh5.3 bn food appeal for Kenya

Article paru dans la presse kenyane de ce jour

The United Nations is seeking Sh5.3 billion to deal with food shortages occasioned by expensive farm inputs and post-election violence in Kenya.

The World Food Programme – the UN agency concerned with food security in the world – has appealed for the funds to feed 1.2 million Kenyans, a fraction of them victims of the conflict after the disputed results of the December 27 elections. “We launched an appeal last week for $84 million for operations in Kenya throughout the year,” said Mr Marcus Prior, the agency’s spokesperson for East and Central Africa.

The appeal follows an assessment last month of the violence that claimed at least 1,200 lives and displaced 350,000 others in parts of Rift Valley, Western and Central provinces.

“We did look at the planting season but it’s rather too early to make an assessment. Obviously, there has been disruption (in planting) in the Rift Valley Province,” he said in reference to the region, largely considered Kenya’s food basket but which was scoured by chaos last January. “We will carry out (another) assessment later in the year.”

The appeal comes as the world is facing a food crisis that WFP executive director Josette Sheeran calls the “silent tsunami” in reference to the tidal wave caused by sea quake and that often kills scores of people and causes damage worth millions of shillings.

Reports from parts of Africa, Europe, Asia, and South America show that food scarcity is causing civil strife. The shortages result from expensive agricultural inputs (such as fertiliser) caused by escalating oil prices, and a move by the developed world to divert grains to make ethanol (the inexpensive alternative to petroleum).

“It’s more profitable to make fuel (from maize) than to make food,” says Dr Juma Mukhwana, the executive director of Sacred Africa, a non-governmental organization involved in food security and commodity exchange prices in rural Kenya.

According to the Centre for International Cooperation’s Alex Evans, “global food prices have risen by 80 per cent in the last three years”. In Kenya, the shortages are evident in the doubling of prices of essential foods, including milk, flour and rice.

Yet the country’s problem is worsened by the post-election fighting that displaced more than 100,000 farmers from their land to camps, according to Mr Paul Mbuni, the chairperson of the 8,000-member Kenya Society for Agricultural Professionals (KESAP).

“There will be a drastic decline in production of maize and wheat,” said Mr Mbuni. “We expect a maize shortfall of eight million bags this year.”

As authorities worry over the shortfall, reports indicate that Kenya’s strategic food reserves are getting depleted fast as the Government feeds the 350,000 people displaced by the election conflict. “Of course the fact is that since January when clashes began, the Government has accessed a lot of food to the IDPs,” says Mr Kipserem Maritim, the spokesperson of National Cereals and Produce Board, the country’s grain store. “This has impacted on our reserves.”

According to Agriculture minister William Ruto, the country has 3.5 million bags reserved at the NCPB for emergency. This is enough to feed the country until August, he said four days ago.

Kenyans consume 32 million bags of maize per year. Last year, 36 million bags of maize were produced meaning there was a surplus of about 4 million bags.

Now the Government seeks to mop up the extra grain still in farmers’ hands. “We believe there are farmers out there holding onto food. We are appealing to them to bring it to us because we have the infrastructure and facilities to preserve the grain,” Mr Maritim says. As yet, the board cannot quantify the maize still held by farmers. However, the response to the appeal has been “low” says Mr Maritim.

Commodity prices analysts say the response could be poor because maize farmers may be disposing of the produce to agents who are paying better than the Sh1,300 a bag offered by the NCPB.

Salvage crops

At the same time, the Government has no plans to import cereals to counter the looming food shortage in the country, the Saturday Nation has established.

Instead, the Agriculture ministry is pegging hope on unharvested food crops in Kenya and neighboring Tanzania.

“We expect maize harvests from Tanzania in June and from parts of Rift Valley and Western provinces in July,” said permanent secretary Romano Kiome.

While acknowledging dwindling food stocks in the country, Dr Kiome said cereals in Canada, America and Australia were also selling at high prices. It will, therefore, mean the Government will have to exhaust all options possible before it can seek international imports. “We are keen on cross-border imports; it will be cheaper this way,” said the PS.

Early this week, the Agriculture minister raised the red flag and said local food reserves could only last until August. This means Kenyans risk starvation in coming months if no decisive measures are taken soon. Already residents in some parts of Rift Valley like Samburu and West Pokot districts are experiencing food shortages.

The Government has laid down strategies to ensure productivity of food crops already in farms is enhanced while still facilitating planting of others. Farmers are set to be given top dressing (CAN) fertilizer to salvage crops planted in April.

Internal refugees

Since the onset of long rains in February, the Government has distributed 350 tonnes of free seeds to internal refugees. “We are also seeking a way in which Kenya Seed Company can reduce seed prices by around 40 per cent,” said Dr Kiome.

The PS further said the ministry had also distributed 21 tonnes of fertiliser to farmers especially in Rift Valley and assisted in ploughing 4,000 acres for free. “We are also helping them get farm tools. So far we have given them 14,000 tools,” said Dr Kiome.

Maize and rice production was high in the last five years, but the gains made were reversed by post-election chaos. “About 3.5 million bags of maize were either burnt or destroyed during the violence hence the deficit,” says Dr Kiome.

Saut d'un morane (jeune guerrier Samburu) lors d'une danse traditionnelle

Kenya food security outlook

Food security is deteriorating for households throughout Kenya. A poor October to December short-rains season in most pastoral and marginal agricultural areas has decreased pasture availability and reduced household access to food from on-farm production. Food security has decreased for normally food-secure households in Rift Valley, Nyanza, and central and western Kenya following the adverse effects of the post-election crisis since late December 2007, which disrupted production and trade and displaced farmers, business persons and casual laborers. About 830,000 people currently require emergency assistance.

From July to September, calmness is expected to return to the conflict-affected areas of the country, allowing trade to increase and some displaced households to return home. However, food availability will be below normal due to disruptions in planting activities for the 2008 long-rains harvest. Additionally, the long rains are expected to be poor in northern and eastern pastoral and marginal agricultural areas of the country, further depleting pasture availability and limiting household production, causing an increase in the number of households that are highly food insecure.

In the worst-case scenario, the poor performance of the long rains will extend to the northwest and southern pastoral areas, leading to localized extreme food insecurity. The political crisis may not be fully resolved, causing further reduction in the 2008 long-rains harvest and a significant increase in food prices in the third quarter. The food security of displaced households will decline further, as many would be unable to leave camps to access their livelihoods, and host families would no longer be able to continue housing IDPs due to the erosion in their own purchasing capacities. The number of people requiring emergency assistance could increase to 2.4 million.

lien : http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/satelliteimages/120893991062.htm

PLAN DES ZONES AFFECTEES :

http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/imagerepository/satelliteimage/120893990827__orig.jpg

http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/imagerepository/KE_food_april.pdf

Ce collier est actuellement porte par la jeune epouse le jour de la celebration du mariage traditionnel qui dure trois jours chez les Samburus, au moment de la pleine lune.

Dans quelques regions reculees du District, il est encore porte quotidiennement, mais c'est une coutume en voie de disparition.

Recouvert pour la circonstance de l'ocre rouge.

Society - Exposed: Where all your money goes

Lu dans la presse kenyane de ce jour


The most expensive item on my pay slip is not food, transport, school fees or beer. It not even those things over which the governor of the State of New York recently lost his job. The most expensive item on my pay slip is the government of the African Republic of Kenya.

First, the government takes an outright one third in direct taxes. If I spend my whole salary on goods and services, it means, taking into account 16 per cent VAT, 46 per cent of my salary goes to the government. Keeping in mind that there are many more taxes, it is safe to assume that I work 14-hour days and hand over two-thirds of my pay cheque to the government.

IT IS THEREFORE IMMORAL TO SEE SOME sub-literate thug strutting around spending all that money and having no respect for me, the man who has to work to keep his mistresses in expensive underwear, his children in good schools and the gas tanks of the juggernauts I have bought him full of fuel.

If this government does not spend our money with more care and show us more tangible benefits for it, including a tax cut, I shall be among the first to join a middle class revolution against it.

So you can imagine how excited I was by a story in the Daily Telegraph published under the headline “Kenya’s cabinet soaks up 80pc of the budget”. It was based on an interview with Mwalimu Mati, former director of Transparency International and head of the Mars Group, who campaigns against corruption.

“Kenya’s expanded new government,” the story read, “will spend 80 per cent of the entire national budget on luxury vehicles, inflated salaries for ministers and general running costs, a local anti-corruption group claimed on Wednesday.

“Of Kenya’s annual budget of £5.4 billion, more than £4.3 billion will go on 93 ministers and their government’s general running costs. Only £1.3 billion will be left for roads, schools and hospitals for Kenya’s 38 million people.”

For a moment there I thought the paper was reporting that 80 per cent of the budget this year will go to buying and maintaining Hummers. Don’t sue me, but I think the report is looking at the two halves of spending that the government does, recurrent and development. Recurrent are the expenses paid over and over, including wages and fuel for Hummers. Development is, well, development.

Not satisfied, I probed a little more and came across a document Kenyans should see. It is called Quarterly Economic and Budgetary Review; the most recent covers the last quarter of 2007 (You can find it at http://www.treasury.go.ke). It tells you what the government spent your salary on. In general, the government spends very little money on development. The bulk of the resources of this country go to debt payments and government expenses. That is why it is so nonsensical to create a government of 42 ministries, complete with 50 assistant ministers and of course 42 permanent secretaries. It’s flushing money down the chute, just to keep Moi-era politicians happy and away from the throats of poor villagers.

The books of the government for the last quarter of 2007, that is June to December, were actually not bad, I hate to admit. Sh167 billion went to recurrent expenses against only Sh64 billion for development. But this is generally good given that the previous year expenditure on development was just about half of that.

Secondly, the government has either become a little more frugal, or ministries are asking for more money than they have use for. In general, during that quarter the government spent Sh21.9 billion less than it expected, which is a good and bad thing depending on what was supposed to be done and wasn’t.

THE RECURRENT EXPENSES ACCOUNT was underspent by Sh52.5 billion, which is very good, assuming that this was a saving rather than things not getting done. The development account was overspent by Sh30.5 billion, which is a good thing, provided all that money went to development. Problem is, I don’t know that it was. The ministry of Finance alone overspent its development budget by Sh36 billion, and until I know what the money was spent on, it is impossible to render judgment. Given that only Sh64 billion was spent on development in that quarter, half of it was absorbed by the ministry’s overexpenditure, which is mighty suspicious.

Two important things: The government owes Sh836.4 billion, half of it to foreigners. Foreign debt service for the quarter in question was close to Sh9 billion.

Another thing is that the entire recurrent budget does not go to juggernauts; in that quarter, Sh10 billion was directed to uses that the government claims are intended to fight poverty which, I guess, is a good thing.

I suggest that we all watch this government like a hawk. It must spend money with care, and it must identify the priorities that have direct effect on our lives. Wherever I talk to people, the message I get is that the country will go back to the days of big deals and big looting. We need to keep an eye on this.

KENYA: Plus d’excuses pour ne pas utiliser de préservatif

Quand la musique bat son plein, que l’alcool coule à flots et que les hormones sont en ébullition, se procurer un préservatif n’est pas forcément la première chose qui vient à l’esprit, jusqu’à ce qu’il soit trop tard : les boutiques sont fermées et les préservatifs ne tombent pas du ciel.......

LIRE LA SUITE DE L'ARTICLE : http://www.irinnews.org/fr/ReportFrench.aspx?ReportId=77797

Le ciel de Maralal, a 19h00, au coucher du soleil...du volume, des couleurs....
Photo prise le 15 avril 2008.

ONU : Appel à l'aide humanitaire pour le Kenya

Les Nations unies ont lancé un appel pour la mobilisation d'une aide d'un montant de 189 millions de dollars US, au profit du Kenya, afin de susciter une réaction d'urgence aux menaces de famine.

L'appel conjoint lancé, lundi à Nairobi, au profit des organismes humanitaires intervenant au Kenya, n'est qu'une réactualisation de l'appel du mois de janvier dernier qui avait pour cibles les victimes des inondations et les milliers de personnes déplacées ou touchées par les violences post-électorales.

Dans le premier appel du 16 janvier, l'ONU et les Organisations non-gouvernementales demandaient aux donateurs de mettre à disposition l'équivalent de 41,9 millions de dollars US, mais seuls 31,2 millions avaient été reçus, soit 74 pour cent environ des besoins exprimés.

“Cet appel réactualisé vient en appoint au Plan d'intervention humanitaire d'urgence, qui avait été présenté au mois de janvier, en tentant de couvrir des activités de sauvetage, de renforcement de la paix et de réconciliation jusqu'à la fin de l'année 2008”, a fait valoir Elizabeth Lwanga, Coordinatrice résidente des Nations unies.

Elle a noté que l'appel réactualisé intègre les projets de 13 agences onusiennes et de 37 autres organisations internationales et Organisations non-gouvernementales locales.

Les projets couvrent des domaines aussi variés que le bien-être et la protection des déplacés internes (notamment des familles hôtes) ainsi que la réinstallation et la restauration des moyens de subsistance et ils ont pour finalité de renforcer et de compléter les appels lancés par le gouvernement et la Croix-rouge du Kenya.

Les principales augmentations se rapporteront au domaine de la mise à disposition de la nourriture, qui mobilisera la part la plus importante de l'enveloppe prévue par le nouvel appel, pour un total de 74 millions de dollars US.

Les distributions de nourriture se poursuivront tout au long de l'année.

Le Kenya est menacé par l'imminence d'un déficit alimentaire, suite à la faible pluviométrie enregistrée, à l'invasion acridienne notée dans le nord du Kenya, une situation qui a eu des effets négatifs pour les populations de pasteurs de la région, ainsi qu'à la violence générée par les dernières élections.

Au moins 100.000 agriculteurs de la région considérée comme le grenier du pays, la Rift Valley, vivent encore dans les camps ouverts à l'intention des déplacés internes.

Dans le nouvel appel, l'ONU cible les personnes déplacées, les communautés hôtes et les pasteurs des zones aussi bien arides que semi-arides affectés par la sécheresse.

Une rapide évaluation des petites pluies relevées jusqu'en décembre 2007 montre que certaines parties du pays ont reçu moins de 75 pour de la pluviométrie normale enregistrée au cours de la saison des petites pluies.

Cette situation, associée au déplacement des agriculteurs de la Province de la Rift Valley, le grenier du pays, rend encore plus actuelles les menaces de pénurie alimentaire.

La province de la Rift Valley produit 70% de l'aliment de base du pays, le maïs.

Selon les Nations unies, le retour des agriculteurs déplacés dans leurs champs semble peu probable tant que les efforts de réconciliation politique n'auront pas donné des résultats satisfaisants.

Il faut que les pasteurs des terres arides et semi-arides du nord, du nord-ouest et du nord-est bénéficient d'un soutien, si l'on veut prévenir l'apparition d'une nouvelle crise dans ces zones.

Lu dans la presse kenyane de ce jour

Trois heures de route sur une route non macadamisee pour rejoindre Maralal apres Nyahururu et Rumuruti ; un payasage grandiose certes, la possibilite de voir les animaux sauvages en toute liberte, avec l'incofort d'un trajet cahotique, sous la poussiere dense en saison seche, au risque repete de s'embourber en saison des pluies...Ce serait le charme africain, si les vehicules ne faisaient l'objet depuis une certaine periode d'attaques repetees, atteignant autant les biens que les personnes.
Triste reputation pour le Samburu District!!

Photo jointe : Plan du Samburu District

On the deadly highway to Kenya’s forgotten frontier

Bumpy, dusty and rocky. This is the apt description of the notorious Rumuruti-Maralal road — the highway that opens up Samburu district to the outside world.

After a half an hour’s ride from Nyahururu, we reached Rumuruti town, in the heart of Laikipia West district. It was an auction day and we were lucky not to have hit the numerous livestock that cross the Nyahururu-Rumuruti road at various trading centres.

We were barely a kilometre away from the town en route to Mararal when we suddenly bid good-bye to tarmac road. This is when I learnt that the name Rumuruti was coined from “remote route”, a reference made by colonialists to the region.

With the rough stretch starting outside the district commissioner’s office, it appeared as if people seeing us off in the town did not warn us that the 200km journey from Rumuruti to Maralal was risky without police escort.

Venturing into the desolate plains that transcend Laikipia and Samburu districts, we were apprehensive about what lay ahead. We had been told of attacks by gun-toting bandits, and none of us savoured the thought of bumping into such gangs.

Evidence that we were plunging into a forgotten human habitat started a few kilometres from Rumuruti town. Nomadic hovels belonging to the local people are scattered along the route.

We could see elderly women herding sheep and goats, and each group of Turkana women we met seemed harmless and satisfied with the bush life.

After Kinamba primary school, the terrain became worse. We screeched to a halt when a herd of goats appeared suddenly from the bush and onto the road. One of the teenage boys herding them was carrying a rifle which was slung on his back.

“That is a gun. Likely an AK 47,” our guide said.

In a bid to forestall ill-intentions, a colleague waved at him, and he waved back without much interest. As we got deeper into Laikipia, the more sophisticated herders seemed. We had been warned of cattle crossing the road, a tactic raiders use to force motorists to slow down.

The hilly stretch between Tingamara and Naibor Farm appeared riskier. Apart from the danger of ramming into humped cattle, this is the most notorious hideout for criminals, were warned. In the past two years, over 30 people, including matatu drivers, have been killed in the area when their vehicles were sprayed with bullets.

From the Tinga Mara police post to Naibor, we came across hundreds of cattle headed for a nearby water point. A series of whistle blowing from the overlying plains stiffened our necks.

“They have seen us .We shall be attacked. Talk to them nicely,’’ our guide said. Frozen by the imminent disaster, none of us uttered a word.

Just from among the slow-moving cattle, a middle-aged man clad in traditional Pokot regalia came over. “Iko nini nyuma? (What are you ferrying?)?” he asked, then beckoned to the driver to open the boot.

As we watched in horror, the armed man blew a different whistle. We later learnt that he was sending a message that there were no “enemies”.

Shortly, two heavily armed men emerged and surrounded our vehicle. Finding nothing valuable in the boot, the three warriors communicated in the their language before the gang leader came forward. “Iko mia mbili kila mtu?” (Do you have Sh200 each?),” they asked.

We knew this was not a request. Each one of us reached for our pockets. With Sh600 for them, we were allowed to proceed. We heaved a sigh of relief and only relaxed when we approached Suguta Mar Mar, the first trading centre on the route, 40km from Mararal.

The entry into the dusty town attracted curious residents as our vehicle slowly came to a halt near Baraka Stores, a leading retail outlet.

With emaciated children strapped on their backs, hordes of teenage girls beckoned us as they stretched their hands for something. They were unable to reply to our enquiries in Kiswahili and a young man told us they wanted some money for maize flour.

Our guide led us into a nearby restaurant where an elderly man awaited us. On seeing us, he stood up and muttered: “Let us thank God in prayers for your reaching here safely.” Mzee Joseph Lelesit, like other residents, was relieved that we had arrived in the town unscathed.

Local business people are frustrated at the deteriorating security on the road. The Mararal municipal council faces declining revenues as traders from outside the district are keeping off the town.

“Food sellers are having a problem ferrying food here,” says says mayor Moses Lekupe.

“They need police escort and this has affected the supply of basic commodities” He expresses concern that the town’s potential is not being fully realised.

But things are worse for te Samburu county council. Tourist numbers are declining at the Samburu game reserve, the local authority’s lifeline. Council chairman Julius Leshimpiro accuses the Pokot neighbours of planning to annihilate the Samburu economically.

Due to the insecurity, over 10 primary schools have been closed as families flee from attacks. During a council meeting on Tuesday, Mr Leshimpiro led 37 fellow councillors in pleading with the Government to protect the residents from attackers believed to be from Baringo East and Laikipia West districts.

Leshimpiro is categorical that differences between the communities is no longer about cattle rustling. In a briefing to Saturday Nation, he said there is a calculated move to halt farming activities at the district’s agricultural belt near Poror and Poroa.

Here, wheat, barley, maize, potatoes and beans are grown to supplement food supplies from Nyandarua and Laikipia districts.

The local leaders say that although the Government’s intervention has been felt, more needs to be done. Nominated MP Maison Leshoomo, a long-time civic leader in the area, says technology favours the raiders as they can easily communicate.

The MP laments that the two police posts at Naibor and Tinga Mara, on the all-important road, do not have the resources to combat crime.

Without a patrol vehicle, the less that 10 officers cannot react quickly to distress calls. “We need more sophisticated weapons for our officers to be able to handle the situation,” she says.

From Uaso Nyiro River in the north, Samburu district stretches to the edge of Lake Turkana.

It relies on both pastrolism and agriculture to sustain the population of about 300,000. However, it relies more on food supplies from neighbouring districts due to constant dry spells.