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Nairobi,
August 29, 2009 – Crops have shriveled, hundreds of cattle are dead and
the World Food Programme says 3.8 million Kenyans need emergency food
aid because of a prolonged drought, which is even causing electrical
blackouts in the capital because there's not enough water for
hydroelectric plants.
With rivers thinning to a trickle and mountain glaciers shrinking,
authorities this month began rationing power in the capital, darkening
homes and businesses at least three days a week.
The slums, where roughly half the capital's four million residents live,
are being hit the worst. Taps have run dry and residents often wait for
days for trucks to deliver expensive potable water.
Business owners say they're losing money, harming Kenya's rebound from
the violent aftermath of a 2007 presidential election that eviscerated
the economy and killed more than 1000 people.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga this month warned of a "catastrophe" if
seasonal rains don't come in October and November, expressing fear that
inter-clan violence could ensue. Kenya's grain harvest is expected to be
28 per cent lower. Food prices have jumped by up to 130 per cent.
In Nairobi's sprawling Kibera slum, tailor Joseph Owino, 40, said he
expected power cuts and customers' financial woes would slash his income
this month by 80 per cent, to less than US$12 ($17.50). He and his six
children now eat a meager breakfast of maize meal and black tea and skip
lunch.
"We buy hoofs which have been thrown away and cook them with vegetables
so that it has a meaty taste," he said.
In many places in the parched countryside, the air stinks of rotting
cattle carcasses.
Peruan Lesakut, a Maasai herdsman, said he had 120 cattle last month but
now has only 56, all emaciated. "I cannot sell my animals," he said. "I
will stay here until they all die."
Eunice Wairimu's maize, bean and potato harvests on her small farm in
Laikipia, 200km north of Nairobi, have failed for the past three years.
The 45-year-old relies on handouts from the United Nations' World Food
Programme.
The WFP has called for US$230 million in donations to feed hungry
Kenyans.
Source: AP, Aug 27, 2009
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