Low rainfall and livestock deaths trigger alarm

NAIROBI--The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned on 16 December thatthe number of people needing food aid in Kenya would rise considerably from
the current 1.1 million to possibly as many as 2.5 million because of the
failure of the short rains in many eastern and northern districts of Kenya.
The lack of rainfall is likely to lead to a serious food security crisis
over the first half of 2006, according to the Kenya Food Security Meeting
(KFSM), which comprises UN agencies including WFP, non-governmental
organizations, donors and government officials.

The KFSM said the October to December short rains were extremely bad in
northeastern pastoral districts and rainfall in eastern marginal
agricultural areas was erratic, patchy and 30 percent below normal overall.
Significant livestock deaths are being reported because of a lack of water,
pasture and browse. According to the KFSM, this represents an early
warning because it was extraordinary for camels and donkeys to be dying in
large numbers in the north and east immediately after the short rains.

"Until our field assessments are completed in January, we won't know
exactly how many more people will require emergency food aid, but in areas
suffering from successive droughts, food security is already critical said
WFP Country Director Tesema Negash. "We are sounding the alarm now because
of what the early warning indicators are all showing a rapidly
deteriorating situation. We need immediate action to avoid the loss of
people’s assets and their lives,” said Negash