By Katy Migiro
A newly arrived Somali refugee holds her bag of relief maize outside a distribution centre at the Dadaab refugee camp, near the Kenya-Somalia, July 23, 2011. REUTERS/Barry Malone
NAIROBI (AlertNet) – The front page of Kenya’s The Standard newspaper on Friday juxtaposed a photograph of a starving, elderly woman in northern Kenya with another of a farmer standing next to his rotting cabbages in Central Province.
Some 3.5 millions Kenyans will require food aid by mid-August due to a severe, prolonged drought in its arid lands. Frustrated by the government’s poor response, Kenyan citizens have launched an appeal aiming to raise 500 million Kenya shillings ($5.5 million) in the next month.
Meanwhile, the central part of the country is experiencing heavy downpours and its farmers are feeding cabbages to their cows for lack of markets.
“As thousands die of malnutrition, food goes to waste,” the paper laments, blaming the poor state of Kenya’s roads.
The paper says it costs farmers more to take their produce to market than they will receive for it.
"It is disappointing and shocking that we have abundant food in some areas and which is going to waste, while thousands of Kenyans elsewhere are starving," local parliamentarian David Ngugi told the paper.
No comments:
Post a Comment