Georgina Newman: Forlorn millions on brink of starvation

The carcasses of cattle and goats litter Kenya's scorched landscape. The only creatures enjoying a meal are the vultures which circle in the relentless blue sky. Even the camels, the desert's most hardy animals, are dying. Very soon the children will follow.

Kenya is suffering from the worst drought in 22 years. Water and food are running critically low and 1.2 million people are teetering on the brink of starvation.

The World Food Programme predicts that within two weeks this number will have risen by another million, just when all its emergency food stocks dry up.

Today there are few swollen-bellied children with stick-thin legs for the media to film. So far 42 people have died as a direct result of famine, but malnourished babies are arriving in droves at Unicef's therapeutic feeding centres in Wajir and Mandera.

If help does not arrive soon we will witness, yet again, the iconic African image of starving children. And by then it will be too late.

So while we still have this precious sliver of time to save thousands of children, why don't we send help now?

Kenya's drought is part of a larger crisis affecting millions in the Horn of Africa. Another 1.4 million people in Somalia, 1.5 million in Ethiopia and 60,000 in Djibouti are also perilously close to disaster.

Kenya's infamous Maasi camel-herding communities are facing extinction. Their herds are decimated by drought and they are too poor to buy food.

Most of the Maasi men in Kajiado district have left their farms, taking their cattle to search for pastures. The impact on the women and children left behind is desperate because there is no milk, the dams are bone dry, prices are rising rapidly and they have to fend for themselves. A cabbage that would normally sell for 25 shillings now goes for 60.

For the Masai, cows equal money in the bank, now that capital is rapidly expiring.

Herdsmen say they are losing dozens of cows each day. Given the difficulty of keeping them alive, cows are also losing value. An animal that once fetched the equivalent of $100 is going for a third of that.

Kenya's troubles are not a simple matter of a chronic lack of rain, though rain has been sparse or non-existent in some areas.

But this is a hard country used to a harsh climate. What has really broken the camel's back is the lack of funding for basic services.

It is a crisis of misplaced priorities. Unicef has predicted food shortages since October, but the Kenyan Government was slow to respond, not holding a single meeting in relation to the looming disaster last year. Only three weeks ago did the Government finally declare a state of emergency.

A recent field survey by Unicef estimated that there are some 40,000-60,000 malnourished children and women in 27 districts who need immediate assistance. As a result it has re-issued its October appeal, which calls for US$14 million ($20 million), as only half a million was forthcoming.

The combination of high malnutrition rates with generally low measles immunisation portends a major measles outbreak. Children weakened by malnutrition are at grave risk of any infection and measles is one of the most virulent, spreading lethally and quickly - it can take a weak child's life in a few hours.

Kenya's Achilles heel is that little money has been spent on basic infrastructure such as new roads or repairing existing bone-crunching roads, especially in the poorer northeastern regions.

There are few medical facilities, scant schooling opportunities and a lack of clean water or irrigation mechanisms.

All this means that the underlying causes of hunger in Kenya are not addressed.

Kenya is a relatively well off country by African standards. It should not have to rely on emergency food aid every time a drought occurs.

Ironically, Kenya is a food exporter, and in parts of the country silos are full of grain. But it lacks the road network to get the grain to where it is needed.

For children to escape poverty and hunger, investment is desperately needed. Food aid is vital for the survival of children, but ultimately what is needed is a complete overhaul.

We must help the starving children who are at the mercy of bad policies, but we must also give long-term assistance to help this country get on its feet so it doesn't live in a perpetual hand-to-mouth dependency.

* Georgina Newman is communications manager for Unicef NZ