GARISSA - Millions of Kenyans are teetering on the edge of starvation because of a severe drought, their plight worsened by corrupt officials stealing and selling sacks of food aid, analysts say.
The government says the lack of rains for three straight years has left 2.5 million people close to starvation, prompting President Mwai Kibaki to declare the drought a national disaster and appeal for $150 million to feed the hungry.
Police raids on shops in the northeast town of Garissa and the arrests of traders have confirmed that many responsible for handing out aid have been stealing and selling it.
"Of course, we are concerned when we hear about people stealing food from the mouths of those who are hungry," said Osman Gure Yusuf, community development officer with the Arid Lands Resource Management Project for Wajir district.
"If there is any misappropriation by chiefs or councilors, it won't be tolerated."
While the response to appeals has been slow, aid agencies say the theft of food aid shows the need for distribution to be better monitored to save lives and reassure foreign donors.
The Daily Nation newspaper called for traders found guilty of selling relief food to be prosecuted.
"Nothing demonstrates the shamelessness of corruption in our society more than the fact that those selling the food aid did not even bother to remove the 'Government of Kenya relief - not for sale' labels on the bags," it said in Saturday's editorial.
Government spokesman Alfred Mutua was not immediately available for comment.
LOOKING FOR FOOD
The United Nations says 6 million people in the region are facing starvation, with Somalia and Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa particularly exposed.
The drought has forced thousands of Kenyans to trek through the dusty plains with their animals, looking for food and distribution points.
"We have been waiting for so many weeks but nothing has come and our children will die if no one helps us," says Harira Aden Ali, cradling her one-month-old baby girl, Amina.
"Since Amina was born, I haven't even been able to even give her milk as my breasts have dried up through lack of food and water - as I starve, so will she."
Figures are sketchy for the number of deaths so far from hunger and hunger-related illnesses in the country, but experts believe there are far more than the dozens officially recorded.
Drought experts point to poor monitoring of government distribution of food, as well as a lack of trucks to transport it, as key problems.
They also say aid agencies and the government need to coordinate their efforts better because the former have targeted those most in need, while the government has opted for blanket distributions to anyone, vulnerable or not.
Aid agencies strictly follow all stages of the food dispatch - from flagging off trucks from the warehouse to the signature or thumb-print of the recipient of the monthly rations.
But with few officials on the ground to check where the food goes after it reaches local districts, this leaves the door open for the misappropriation of government food such as in Garissa.
Story by Nita Bhalla
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
