The UK Department for International Development today announced an additional £5 million (over 600m KSh) in humanitarian aid to help Kenyans cope with the impact of the drought.

The money will go to UNICEF and NGOs to help some of those most vulnerable to the current crisis, particularly acutely malnourished children.

This brings to £15m (over 1.8b KSh) DFID’s humanitarian contribution to Kenya in 2009

UK money will support emergency feeding for at least 15,000 children with acute malnutrition, and emergency health, water and sanitation interventions that will include water sterilisation kits for 200,000 households. The risks of children dying in malnourished populations are dramatically increased by diarrheoa.

Although nearly 10 million people are suffering from food shortages in Kenya, the UK is particularly concerned about the 281,000 children under 5 who UNICEF estimates are acutely malnourished, of whom over 39,000 are severely malnourished.

“This drought is one of the worst the region has seen for years” said Simon Mansfield, DFID’s Nairobi-based Regional Humanitarian Adviser. “In some districts over 20% of children are starving. DFID’s humanitarian policy targets our aid at the most vulnerable. Therapeutic feeding is expensive, but is the most effective intervention for those children at greatest risk of dying.”

The UK is calling on the Government of Kenya to do more to help Kenyans unable to cope with the drought. “We welcome the 21b KSh the Government has reallocated for drought relief from within its own budget, and the new measures it has taken to coordinate a more effective response”, said Alistair Fernie, Head of DFID Kenya in Nairobi. “But given the scale of the problem, we think the Government needs to allocate more money from its own budget. Widespread hunger and suffering among its people must be a priority call on any Government’s budget.”

The UK is also working with the Government to find longer-term solutions to Kenya’s dependence on international humanitarian aid, providing more than 14b KSh over 10 years for social protection programmes such as hunger safety nets, mostly in the arid and semi-arid lands.

“This crisis is an opportunity for Kenya to confront the chronic problems which repeated droughts bring”, said Alistair Fernie. “A country with Kenya’s resources and capacity should not be appealing for international humanitarian aid on this scale year after year. Our funding would better be spent developing longer-term sustainable solutions to Kenya’s persistent poverty and changing climate, which could reduce the need for food handouts and improve communities’ and families’ own coping mechanisms when rains fail. We welcome Prime Minister Odinga’s interest in working with development partners to increase growth and reduce poverty in Kenya’s drought-prone districts”.

Notes for Editors

1. Other humanitarian partners DFID has already funded in 2009 include the UN agencies World Food Programme and UNHCR, and the international NGOs Save the Children, Médecins Sans Frontières and Action Against Hunger.

2. Donors discussed the drought with Prime Minister Odinga on 15 September, at which he appealed for international assistance.

3. Britain is the second largest bilateral donor in Kenya, with a budget of around £70 million (Kshs 8.5 billion) per year. Over 80% of our assistance to Kenya goes towards health, education, humanitarian assistance and social protection. The remaining 20% supports improved governance, private sector development, financial sector reform and statistics.

4. For more information, please contact either the DFID Communications Officer on 020 2873299 or 0733 606728, or the British High Commission Press Office on 020 2844212 or 0722 203896.

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