How food shortage is keeping 2.5m children away from classroom

Nearly 2.5 million children are yet to report back to school due to hunger, which has been blamed on the ongoing drought, the worst in Kenya over the last 40 years.

United Nations Chieldrems Education Fund (UNICEF), made the revelation yesterday, just three days after Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu and his Interior counterpart, Kithure Kindiki, said the government had launched a campaign to round up all children who are meant to be in school but are not.

The campaign will mainly target Grade Seven and Form One students who failed to transition from Grade Six and Standard Eight respectively.

Last week, Kindiki directed government officers at the Coast to ensure that all children are meant to be in school report at once. And according to Machogu, Kwale and Kilifi had the lowest transition rate for Grade Seven and Form One. Both are affected by the ongoing drought. In Kajiado, one of the counties hardest hit by drought, about 6,000 learners who were expected to join Grade Seven in January are yet to report to school.

Unicef says the 2.5 million children who are missing from school are part of 6.4 million people in the arid and semi-arid (ASAL) regions who are food insecure and in need of humanitarian assistance.

Statistics from the agency indicate that over 970,000 children under the age of five and 142,000 pregnant and breastfeeding mothers also require urgent lifesaving treatment for malnutrition. This is an increase from 884,000 in July last year. “The malnutrition status of children and women is worsening in Turkana, Marsabit, Mandera, Isiolo, Garissa, Baringo and Samburu counties. Malnutrition levels in all these counties are above emergency levels of 15 per cent,” said Shaheen Nilofer, the UNICEF Representative to Kenya. “On the visit to Kajiado with US First Lady Jill Biden, we saw how tough the situation has become for many communities, including food and nutrition sececurity.”

The agency has said it requires more than Sh17 billion this year alone to meet the nutritional needs of families left most vulnerable by drought. “Our urgent priority is meeting the immediate needs of children affected by the current drought, but we also need to build resilience in drought affected areas to prepare communities for future droughts,” said Nilofer. “This includes constructing sand dams and solar powered water systems to provide access to water during times of drought.”

The pleas by UNICEF came even after President William Ruto called for scaling up initiatives and interventions to counter the nation’s worsened drought and food shortage.

Replenish stocks

The country has not had reliable rains since 2021, and this has reduced crop production while the drought has also led to the death of a large number of livestock, particularly in norther Kenya and parts of the Rift Valley, such as Kajiado.

Only last week, the National Cereals and Produce Board announced that it would start buying maize at Sh5,600 per bag. The purchases are meant to replenish the dwindling national strategic reserve stocks.The board had only 50,000 bag remaining by the end of last week.

President William Ruto stated that Sh6 billion has been set aside in the latest Supplementary Budget to respond to the drought between now and May when rains are expected to have started.  “We are facing a devastating drought that has led to widespread distress and suffering. This crisis is worsening and requires urgent scale up of interventions,” the President said.

“The amount will be supplemented by the private sector-led National Steering Committee on Drought Response that has so far raised Sh650 million. However, this may not be enough.”

The government has partnered with private sector players to raise funds for drought mitigation. 

In November, the President appointed a National Steering Committee on Drought Response to lead the private sector effort to mitigate the drought situation in the country. The team is chaired by Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Peter Ndegwa. Its members include CEOs James Mwangi (Equity), Jane Karuku (EABL) and Diamond Trust Bank’s Nasim Devji.

President Ruto has identified the priority areas that need urgent response as enhanced food assistance, cash transfers, health and nutrition interventions. Other interventions include sustained water supply, livestock feeds, school feeding programmes and peace and security initiatives.

In some counties like Kajiado, where the school feeding programme has started, parents have been flocking to schools to benefit from the food supplies. And in regions like Murang’a MPs such as Dindi Nyoro of Kiharu have been paying Sh4,000 for every learner in day secondary schools to get a free lunch meal per term. Their parents are expected to top up the difference of Sh1,000.

According to the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) the delayed and depressed October to December 2022 short rains affected crop production and availability of pasture and water.

Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Miano — under whose docket arid and semi arid lands fall — has said that the Government has released Sh2 billion to secure relief food distribution for affected counties. Procurement for the supplies is ongoing.

According to her, NDMA is providing livestock feed supplements and implementing water related interventions with funding from the National Drought Emergency Fund (NDEF) with support from the European Union. “Cumulative effects of previous successive below-average rainfall seasons have led to depletion of pasture and browse in most ASAL counties, which has resulted in poor body condition of livestock and widespread mortality,” Miano said.

Feed supplements

The ministry, through NDMA, is in the process of dispatching 60,480 bags (50kgs) of livestock feed supplements worth Sh145 million to eight arid counties.  “We have already dispatched feeds to Kitui, Makueni, Kajiado, Marsabit and Isiolo, and finalised logistics for dispatch to Mandera, Wajir and Nyeri counties,” said Miano. The the intervention is aimed at complementing the work undertaken by other partners to avert more livestock deaths.

The livestock feed supplements (drought pellets) distributed by the NDMA are specially formulated and a 50kg bag can feed a cow for 25 days and a sheep/goat for 100 days.

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