Famine Looms in Kenya

At a time when the death of an opposition legislator has just sparked a new wave of violence, Kenyan private organizations and agricultural experts have just sounded the alarm for the risk of an outbreak of famine within the next several months "if the political crisis continues."

"Political instability and insufficient precipitation in some regions are compromising the country's already fragile food security," they indicated in their report.

Although the World Food Programme and the government say that there is enough corn left to meet the needs of Kenyans for the next seven months, the report emphasizes that "the country's strategic reserves could run out if measures are not taken quickly."

And that, unfortunately, seems all too likely. Indeed, tensions have forced nearly 250,000 families to leave their land, abandoning their harvests. At present, 20 percent of the corn planted has already not been harvested, and that proportion could rise to 70 percent if the crisis continues, with all of the resulting consequences in terms of shortages and upward pressure on prices.

This type of circumstance strengthens WOAgri’s conviction that it is essential to set up indicators able to provide information on the status of inventories and to anticipate risks for food security and supply, thus preventing such a crisis from occurring.