This archive report was first published on 2 October 2021.
October 2, 2021 - The United Nations has launched a $139-million flash appeal to provide critical assistance to 1.3 million people in Kenya severely affected by a prolonged drought.
Millions of Kenyans are struggling with two consecutive seasons of poor rainfall, resulting in severe food shortages and a rising number of malnourished children and pregnant women.
According to the Integrated Phase Classification, nearly 370,000 Kenyans are in a state of emergency, while two million others are in crisis.
World Food Program Resident Coordinator in Kenya Stephen Jackson warned that many people are at imminent risk of starvation without urgent nutritional feeding, citing a 465,000 children and 96,000 pregnant and lactating women who are acutely malnourished.
During a visit to a clinic in Wajir, northern Kenya, Jackson shared a heart-wrenching account of a young mother, Zeinab, who had not fed her children that morning and was unsure if she would be able to put food on the table that evening.
"Livestock is the basis of life in northern Kenya," Jackson said, highlighting the devastating impact of the drought on the region's economy.
The Kenyan government has allocated $17 million to assist drought victims, but Jackson emphasized that this is not enough and international support is urgently needed to prevent a deeper crisis.
"The time to act is now," Jackson urged, warning that failure to provide aid could lead to a crisis similar to the 2011 East Africa drought, which resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and threatened the livelihoods of 9.5 million people.
