Africa

Drought in East Africa

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A lack of rain and political unrest is threatening East Africa with starvation. Kenya is one of the hardest hit areas. Anchor Marco Werman finds out more about the severity of the food crisis there from humanitarian adviser Nicholas Wasunna.

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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH-Boston.  A part of the world once synonymous with drought and starvation is facing another food crisis.  Twenty-five years ago images of malnourished children in Ethiopia focused the world’s attention and sympathies on East Africa.  Today, a lack of rain as well as political violence again threatened the region with starvation.  In a moment, we’ll examine the causes of and responses to a recent African food crisis and we’ll consider the legacy of green revolution pioneer Norman Borlaug.  But first, listen to this aid worker.  He’s just visited Northern Kenya where he and his colleagues saw some wrenching sights.

NICHOLAS WASUNNA: We saw an elderly lady just faint. She just passed out.  Her thin body, frail hands.  I remember going to where she was just to hold her hand, and I looked in her eyes which were half shut. And I remember thinking to myself; does it really have to come this? What can we all do to ensure that in our day and age we do not see these kinds of things?

WERMAN: That’s Nicholas Wasunna in Nairobi, Kenya.  He’s a humanitarian advisor for the aid group, World Vision.  He and his colleagues witnessed the effects of the drought as soon as they began their mission.

WASUNNA: Already we could see the carcasses of cows, donkeys, goats and I was shocked when I saw the carcasses of camels as well, but this does show you the severity of this drought.  These communities they really rely on their livestock.  We saw a lot of communities there that they … When I looked in their eyes, there was an emptiness.  There was a despair.  These kids were hungry.  The women were hungry.  Of note were the elderly people.  They were all so … Their body was thin.  You could easily see their ribs.  Yeah, this was a real concern.

WERMAN: Are there people literally on the verge of starvation?  Has anybody died yet?

WASUNNA: No one has come to us specifically and reported a death due to a lack food.  We also have spoken with the government, and they don’t seem to have any figures on death.  But when we’re talking about figures, we’re talking about 3.9 million pastoralists or agro pastoralists are in need of food.  But this crisis also goes wider than just the arid regions.  It also goes into urban centers.  In Kenya, for example, there are 2.5 million people in urban centers that need food assistance, and we also have some people which are still displaced by the post-election violence, and these are about 100,000 people who still need food assistance.

WERMAN: So what brought this about, Nicholas?  I mean, how much is it due to political unrest, the ethnic conflict that you mentioned and the post-election violence and how much is it due to just bad rain for the last two years.

WASUNNA: I think everyone can cite climate change as one of the factors, but actually, if we start working backwards, we can see in places like Northern Kenya, the infrastructure is just so poor.  These are areas that have never been prioritized in terms of infrastructural development.  Getting there by road could take two or three days.  A pastoralist community in Northern Kenya who are looking for a market for the livestock it would take a businessman three days in a [SOUNDS LIKE] lorry to get to Northern Kenya.  By the time he gets there, the quality of the livestock, the body condition is poor so the price will be poor.  A meager sum that can hardly buy cereal for the food.

WERMAN: There is some suspicion that rains will arrive in October, but do you think that would bring any relief?  I mean, a big rain at the end of the growing season seems a little too much too late.

WASUNNA: Some areas are flood prone and we are already preparing to respond to communities where there might be flooding episodes, but normally in places like Takana [PH] in the north, we see that the rain really helps the grass to grow so the animals can start to graze again, but the future trends are there will be more droughts, there will be more episodes of flooding.  We’re expecting and El Nino to be coming from October.  Then we’ll go back to a series of droughts again.  So this will become what we’re calling the new norm.

WERMAN: Nicholas Wasunna is a humanitarian advisor for the aid group, World Vision.  He joined us from Nairobi, Kenya.  Greatly appreciate your thoughts.

WASUNNA: Thank you.

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