AMBASSADORS' FIRST HAND LOOK AT FAMINE CONDITIONS

UNCLAS NAIROBI 000738 SIPDIS NSC AIDAC SIPDIS USAID/DCHA FOR MHESS, WGARVELINK, LROGERS DCHA/OFDA FOR KISAACS, GGOTTLIEB, MMARX, IMACNAIRN, KCHANNELL, LPOWERS, CABLA DCHA/FFP FOR JDWORKEN, DNELSON, SBRADLEY DAA/AFR, FOR KALMQUIST AFR/EA FOR JESCALONA, JBORNS ROME FOR FODAG GENEVA FOR NKYLOH BRUSSELS FOR PLERNER STATE FOR AF/E, AF/EPS, AF/PD, AND IO REDSO/FFP FOR NESTES NSC FOR JMELINE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAID ETRD ECON EAGR SENV PREL PGOV SOCI KE SUBJECT: AMBASSADORS' FIRST HAND LOOK AT FAMINE CONDITIONS AND RESPONSE IN NORTHEASTERN KENYA REF: A. NAIROBI 96 B. NAIROBI 67 C. NAIROBI 285 ¶1. Summary: U.S. Representative to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO),Ambassador Tony Hall, joined Ambassador Bellamy, the Swedish Ambassador, the Deputy U.K. High Commissioner, WFP, USAID and GOK officials including Assistant Secretary Ibrahim Maalim and District Commissioner Samuel Otieno among others in a visit to Wajir in Kenya's arid North Eastern Province. The trip afforded a first-hand look at the impacts of Kenya's on-going drought, and the range of international and local responses to this crisis. The trip highlighted the U.S. response to the current WFP/GOK joint Emergency Operation (EMOP) appeal, and created an excellent opportunity for the Ambassador, Ambassador Hall, and others to encourage the international community to respond quickly to Kenya's worsening food emergency. Also discussed was the need for the GOK to take a leadership role in formulating an effective, long-term development plan for Kenya's arid regions in order to break this on-going, multi-year cycle of food insecurity. End summary. -------------- GREATER RESPONSE TO THE CURRENT APPEAL NEEDED -------------- ¶2. The deadly reality of Kenya's on-going drought-induced famine in Kenya's North Eastern Province (NEP) (and a number of other regions) was on stark display as Ambassador Bellamy and U.S. Representative to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO),Ambassador Tony Hall, traveled to Wajir on February 13. By our invitation, the UK High Commissioner and Swedish Ambassador joined. ¶3. At a visit to an OXFAM-supported GOK emergency food warehouse in Wajir Town, the party, along with international and local press, saw U.S. food aid (mostly bagged maize, but also vegetable oil and corn soy blend) enroute to community-based feeding centers in rural areas of NEP. Ambassador Bellamy, Ambassador Hall, WFP, OXFAM, and Kenyan officials used this venue to request timely and generous international responses to Kenya's on-going food emergency. To date, only the GOK and the U.S. have provided food to support the December 2005 appeal (Ref A). On February 8, the GOK and WFP announced an expanded appeal, stating that at least 3.5 million Kenyans are at risk of severe malnutrition through February 2007, and requesting a total of 396,525 MT of additional food aid assistance, valued at approximately $221.5 million. There are pledges from major donors (including the EU and DFID), but these total $13.4 million, falling drastically short of requirements. The WFP is also actively lobbying non- traditional donors and so far expects to receive small donations from Luxembourg and Turkey. Current commitments to this appeal (almost exclusively from U.S. and GOK sources) will likely be exhausted by early April. ¶4. The next visit was to a water point to discuss how local authorities and families cope with new arrivals displaced by the drought. These (hopefully) temporarily internally displaced persons (IDPs) had traveled great distances looking for water for themselves and their livestock. Many of their animals died during the journey. The impact on the local community is enormous, since these nomadic people are not easily organized into a larger community with responsibilities for providing health services. ¶5. At the Makauror Primary School the Ambassadors had a first-hand look at a WFP school feeding program, which receives the majority of its food donations from the U.S. via the Dole-McGovern Act. [Note: The U.S. is contributing over $10.5 million worth of corn products and soybean oil, which is the foundation of a program feeding more than 1,000,000 school children. This program will be expanded during the emergency to include 500,000 additional at-risk food insecure school children, making Kenya the WFP's largest school feeding program. End note.] As reported in Ref C, many students in drought-impacted areas are dropping out of school to help herd livestock greater distances, or simply because they are too malnourished to attend. These school feeding programs are literally keeping a generation of NEP students in class. A USAID/GOK project is also adding three classrooms and four toilets at this school as part of planned outreach to the marginalized populations of NEP. -------------- USG RESPONSE -------------- ¶6. As noted in Ref B, the U.S. has made a significant contribution to Kenya's appeal for relief food and non-food contributions. From September 2004 to January 4, 2006 the United States has contributed 62,890 MT of food commodities valued at $36.9 million for the drought emergency in Kenya. A further contribution of 12,800 MT of vegetable oil, peas and corn-soy blend as well as of 12,000 MT from a wheat- maize swap, valued at $15 million has been approved and will be delivered as soon as possible. This food will address the immediate food needs of 1.5 million drought victims throughout Kenya, particularly in NEP and other pastoralist areas. ¶7. USAID is also currently providing $2.6 million for water, emergency feeding and agriculture actions. USAID, and perhaps CJTF-HOA, is moving forward on new projects to improve local water access and supply in Northeastern Province. -------------- BLEAK PROSPECTS -------------- ¶8. For the residents of NEP, the future is bleak. Water resources are limited in the best of times, and close to non-existent currently. OFDA estimates that throughout drought-impacted pastoralist areas of Kenya there is 30 percent livestock die-off, and a much higher figure in many locations. ¶9. Long-range meteorological forecasts suggest that the much anticipated "long rains" of March-May will be below average - maybe much below. Without decent rains this spring, not only will currently impacted areas remain under emergency conditions, but many small-scale farmers will have experienced a full year, or more, of failed crops, further deteriorating the country's ability to respond and putting many more people at risk of severe malnutrition. -------------- NEED FOR LONG-TERM DEVELOPMENT -------------- ¶10. At a lunch hosted by the Department of Arid Lands, the discussion focused on the need for long-term, effective development planning to break the chronic cycle of drought and famine in Kenya. Since 2000 Kenya has required a significant international response to food insecurity in many parts of the country. Ambassador Bellamy noted that it is critical that the Kenyan government and its local and international partners create longer term strategies to avoid chronic food emergencies. The consensus among the ambassadors was that a robust plan, fully backed with unwavering political will, would be able to generate donor assistance. ¶11. USAID is supporting developmental programs in some of the worst-affected areas in Kenya, including a focus on how pastoralist lifestyles add to the perpetual nature of the region's food insecurity. In five Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) of Kenya, USAID is supporting a Title II development to achieve sustainable improvement in food security and household incomes. -------------- ADDRESSING FAMINE-RELATED CONFLICT -------------- ¶12. The final stop on the Wajir tour was a meeting with Representatives of the Wajir Peace and Development Committee and Al Fadha Council of Elders, which was organized by a USAID-funded contractor, Development Alternatives, Inc. In recent weeks the Kenya media has had a number of stories on inter-tribal, sometimes cross- border, violent conflict over water, food, and grazing land. While these groups have had great success in bringing stability to the Wajir District, the worsening drought conditions will certainly put their community-based conflict resolution efforts to the test. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶13. Through our food aid, the U.S. has taken the lead in responding to Kenya's food insecurity, and we've received some good press for our contributions. However, Kenya's focus must turn away from multiple "emergency" appeals to address slowly-unfolding, entirely anticipated, food crises and towards development efforts that connect NEP (and other historically neglected regions) to the rest of Kenya and permit some market forces to benefit isolated communities. ¶14. One of the hard truths that the Kenyan government and local leaders must address is that traditional ways of life may not always be viable in the future. In the best of times when there is adequate rainfall, Kenyans living in the NEP face many challenges, relying largely on nature and their livestock herds to meet most their needs. In good years, the herders increase their animal numbers. In bad years they are forced to sell their animals at minimal prices as a last resort. Increasing pressure on the land places natural limits on growth of herds and therefore the population that can be sustained in this arid environment. ¶15. Designing, much less implementing, alternatives to the traditional pastoralist lifestyle would be an enormous challenge for any government. Yet it is this challenge that Kenya and its arid land neighbors -- must face, and soon. BELLAMY DRAFTED: ECON:WBAIN, PAS:JABARNES CLEARED: DCM:LVROWE, USAID:SHAYKIN, REDSO:NESTES