Nairobi — Food meant for starving people and being supplied by the government in northern Kenya is being sold in shops in the region -- even as famine continues to claim lives.
In North Horr, a Nation team touring the area had no problem buying a 50kg bale of rice with the Government of Kenya stamp and clearly labelled "Not For Sale".
The 50kg bag of rice was selling at Sh3,000.
When approached, the unsuspecting shop owner volunteered to go and fetch an unopened bale from his house a short distance away, because the one he had in the shop had already been opened for the grain to be sold in smaller rations.
Paid in food
The Provincial Administration concedes that relief food is being sold, attributing it to the fact that transporters and loaders hired to distribute the food are sometimes paid in kind -- given some of the food, which they are then free to sell.
At Tharade, the local district officer confessed that the relief food was being sold because people got more than they needed.
A visit to the expansive region established that nearly a month and a half since President Kibaki launched an emergency programme in response to famine ravaging the country, hunger continues to take a deadly toll.
In Marsabit and the surrounding regions, the hardest hit are the elderly, too weak to endure the hunger that has overwhelmed most parts of the country since the beginning of the year.
Although there is no official figure to show how many people have died due to the food shortage, a survey by Nation in the greater Marsabit established that at least eight people have starved to death since August.
However, the emergency intervention programme is being seen as a sham, especially in pastoralists' areas like the arid parts of northern Kenya and parts of Laikipia and Samburu districts.
Northern region comprises Marsabit, Isiolo and Moyale, which are witnessing one of the worst famines.
Taken a toll
Contacted by the Nation on Sunday, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Special Programmes, Mr Mohammed Ali, accused the Provincial Administration of failing to abide by government rules in the distribution of relief food.
"We have received complaints that district commissioners are not being transparent in distributing the food," said Mr Ali in a telephone interview.
The food crisis has taken a heavy toll on a majority of the people living in this region. Without their livestock, the communities are entirely depending on relief food being supplied by the government and the World Food Programme.
But the WFP food distributed every month is what has kept most people going.
The food is, however, very little because it is only distributed to a targeted group of the most vulnerable.
Their main diet is meat and milk, which are no longer available because herds of livestock have been wiped out by the drought. The few remaining ones have been driven to neighbouring countries by their owners in search of pasture.
While launching the programme in Loiyangalani division in Marsabit South district on August 18, President Kibaki made it clear that the government would use all resources at its disposal to ensure that no Kenyan dies for lack of food.
Two days later, Prime Minister Raila Odinga launched the Crisis Response Centre (CRC) to coordinate the drought emergency effort.
Members of the CRC are drawn from various ministries and their work is mainly to coordinate distribution of the government relief food to the district level.
In August, food valued at Sh881 million was distributed to 145 districts affected by the drought, according to Mr Ali, who coordinates the CRC.Food worth more than Sh800 million was released again last month.
Mr Ali said that the centre was now releasing the October consignment, worth Sh1.1 billion.
But is all the food reaching the deserving people?
In Chalbi district of the greater Marsabi,t where old people are starving to death, each family received an average of four kilogrammes of maize and rice and about a kilogramme of beans in August.
Last month the district did not receive its rations, which, according to Mr Ali, was due to delay in arrival of the food.
"The food arrived late and distribution process could not be finalised on time. But the food has now been distributed and people in Marsabit should be receiving it," said the PS.
The Chalbi District Officer, Mr Moses Chepkorom, said people were starving because the August, rations were only enough to sustain a family for a day or two.
However, Mr Ali said he was shocked to hear that.
"Each person was supposed to have 10.5 kilogrammes of cereals (maize and rice) from the deliveries we gave the DCs in the greater Marsabit," he said.
Sold in shops
They were supposed to get beans and cooking oil, which only reached very few people.
Even as Mr Chepkorom insisted that the relief food for August was not enough, the same food was being sold in shops.
Residents of the district are pointing fingers at the members of the Provincial Administration, who have the duty of distributing the food.
During an interview in his office in Maikona town, Mr Chepkorom did not deny that relief food was being sold in some areas.
"Probably the relief food being sold is the one given to transporters as a transportation fee when they transport it to the interior parts of the district," he said.
What he could not explain is why his office was using private transporters and yet the food is supposed to be moved by the military, the Administration Police and the National Youth Service using government trucks.
When the government has to hire private transporters, Mr Ali made it clear, DCs had been provided with money to meet the costs.
At El Gade village in North Horr location, residents told Nation that they had received 30 bags of maize from their August rations.
But 10 bags were given to the transporter who took the food to their trading centre.
Mr Chepkorom also explained that owners of stores where relief food is kept before distribution, mostly in the interior of the vast district, are paid with the same food.
Even loaders were not paid cash, but given food, he added.
In Tharade, the DO said people got more relief food than they needed.
"Here we blundered as we took a lot of food but realised that most of the inhabitants had migrated with their livestock," said Mr Chepkorom.The people who got the excess food resorted to selling it.
There are some centres, the DO further explained, where they could not transport the relief food because they were far-flung.
One problem hampering smooth delivery of the relief food, and which Mr Ali agreed was a real bottleneck, is lack of clear guidelines on the distribution process. The World Food Programme and other agencies have for years distributed relief food through a local committee.
It is local people who elect the relief food distribution committee members.
And the committees are answerable to both the relief food beneficiaries and the distributing agents. But in the emergency response intervention, relief food distribution is the sole responsibility of the Provincial Administration.
District commissioners are the overall coordinators of the distribution, while district officers and chiefs coordinate at the grassroots.
Mr Ali promised to take action against the DCs in Marsabit and other areas where leaders have raised complaints about the distribution of relief food.In Wajir South, Mr Ali said three chiefs had already been charged in court in connection with sale of relief food.
Mr Ali said people should not remain silent when they see government officials selling relief food.
"They should write to me and the permanent secretary for internal security to complain," he said.
And he promised that action would be taken against district commissioners in the area if it is established that they are involved in the sale of relief food.
"We cannot allow government officials to take advantage and start selling food meant for the hungry," he said.
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