Kenyans facing starvation rise to 4.1 million
By George.Kebaso, July 13, 2022The number of people facing hunger and starvation has increased to 4.1 million in March up from the 3.5 million in June.
Data from the Ministry of Health has revealed that persistent food insecurity has contributed to a deteriorating nutrition situation in the country with close to one million children aged between six to 59 months being in need of therapeutic treatment for acute malnutrition.
Of this number, about 24 per cent or an estimated 229,000 children are suffering from the most severe form of malnutrition.
Health Chief Administrative Secretary Dr Rashid Aman said this has compromised the children’s immunity, elevating the risk of death. About 134,000 pregnant and lactating women are acutely malnourished and also need urgent treatment.
“The acute malnutrition situation is expected to continue to deteriorate and may require blanket feeding for all children aged six to 59 months in the most affected ASAL counties,” he said. Dr Aman was speaking yesterday when he flagged off Sh30 million Ready-To-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) to four drought-hit counties.
The programme is in conjunction with Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) and the United Nations Children Education Fund (Unicef) meant to mitigate malnutrition risks among children.
Turkana, Mandera, Wajir and Isiolo were named as counties receiving the nutrition commodities aboard seven trucks.
“Consignment is part of the Kemsa-Unicef Integrated Supplies Programme funded by Unicef and managed by the authority to provide nutritious food commodities in 25 counties to curb malnutrition-related child mortality,” Dr Aman added.
Top threats
According to a recent Unicef global alert, at least 13.6 million children under the age of five years suffer from severe wasting.
Severe wasting is responsible for one in five deaths among children under the age of five years, making it one of the top threats to child survival. Under the local programme described as a sub-Sahara model for distributing nutrition commodities in remote food-insecure areas, Kemsa procures, warehouses and provides last-mile delivery of RUTF, Therapeutic Milk, Resomal and Anthropometric Equipment to more than 2,200 health facilities in the 25 counties.
During the flag-off, Unicef Representative in Kenya Maniza Zaman, British High Commissioner Jane Marriot, British Director General for Humanitarian and Development Nick Dyer and Kemsa chief executive Terry Ramadhani were present at Afya House.
Ramadhani said the provision of the lifesaving therapeutic foods had helped reverse stunted growth and development due to a chronic lack of essential nutrients in the diets of thousands of children in these ASAL areas. Kemsa’s partnership with Unicef, she said, is a showcase of the authority’s commitment to sustain organisational reforms that guarantee end-to-end visibility of health products and strengthen accountability at all levels of the supply chain, from procurement to client deliveries.
“For clients such as Unicef, at Kemsa, we offer quality agency services such as quantification, procurement, order management, warehousing, quality assurance, distribution, monitoring and evaluation,” Ramadhani said. Since 2015, Kemsa has distributed Unicef-supported commodities worth Sh2 billion to over 2,200 health facilities in 25 ASAL counties.