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afrol.com, 22 August - As Kenya continues to reel from the effects of a worsening drought, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said today that malnutrition among children under-five is accelerating at an alarming rate. A rapid assessment carried out in May and June by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the worst drought-hit districts of Turkana, Marsabit, Wajir, Mandera and Garissa, indicate that 25 to 30 per cent of children there suffer from malnutrition. This is two to three times the average rate of malnutrition compared to other developing countries. “In this day and age, there is no reason for a child to be chronically hungry. We urgently need the special types of food for children before malnutrition rates get any worse,” said Holdbrook Arthur, WFP Regional Manager for the Horn of Africa, and Country Director for Kenya. WFP is also concerned about recent reports from Kenya’s six refugee camps, located in Dadaab and Kakuma, Northern Kenya, where malnutrition rates amongst children have tripled in the last two months. Reports of increasing malnutrition rates come at a time when WFP has been forced to cut rations across Kenya as funds and food are at critically low levels. Food stocks for refugee camps in Kenya are so poor that WFP has cut August rations by 25 per cent. Relief workers are seeing growing numbers of children admitted into supplementary feeding centers in the camps, as well as more children being re-admitted to the centers. “General food distributions and supplementary distributions go hand in hand. If you don’t get enough of one, you will end up taking large chunks out of the other just to keep food on the table,” said Arthur. Although WFP has recently received a large donation towards its request for 15,000 metric tons of fortified blended foods for its supplementary feeding programme, donor response to WFP’s recent overall appeal for US$ 88 million to feed 3.3 million Kenyans has been sluggish and insufficient. Only one third of this amount has been pledged so far. The funding situation for Kenya is so desperate overall, that WFP has been forced to reduce its general food rations (maize, oil and pulses) this month from 100 to 70 per cent. WFP is relying upon the Government of Kenya to provide more than half of the food needed for August, comprising of 10,000 tons (metric) of cereals. In addition, WFP has had to borrow US$ 7 million from a special United Nations emergency fund for September. “Even with these measures we can only guarantee food until the end of September. After that there’s no more food in the pipeline. We urgently need cash and food now to prevent an even worse situation in the months ahead,” said Arthur.
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