Schools close as famine takes hold in Turkana
Many schools in northeast Kenya have been forced to close,
because there is no food for the children. Bishop Dominic
Kimengich, Bishop of Lodwar in Turkana, said: "The shepherds are on
their knees because the grass does not grow and the animals
die."
This strip of Kenya, caught between the Ethiopian plateau and the
Sudanese bush, tells the drama of a famine that is threatening the
survival of 12 million people in six different countries. There was
a time a few months ago, when government assistance programs
managed to fill classrooms that had been usually half-empty. The
children were hoping to find a little bit of bread or some rice
there, but as of the past few weeks, the rations are not enough and
schools have started to close.
Bishop Dominic said: "The Turkana have not seen rain since last
year: even the dams' basins have dried up."
The drought has caused stress between different communities,
increasingly in competition for water and pastures. Today, the
bishop was informed that two people were killed after they were
caught stealing cattle from a group of Pokot, a nomadic people who
moved further south, along the border with Uganda.
In May, as some Turkana shepherds moved across the border in
Ethiopia, 30 of them were killed.
It is difficult to evaluate the intervention of government and
international bodies, and the UN in particular, as they engage in
the distribution of food rations.
Bishop Dominic said he wonders about the very concept of
"emergency". "Lake Turkana has always been an arid area, why have
stocks not been set aside before?"
Newspapers and radio stations across the region have
complained about the government's response to the crisis.
The dry season will last months and the rains are not expected
before October. In Kenya, the concern is heightened by the
extension of the affected area, 28 districts scattered from Lake
Turkana to the town of Wajir near the border with Somalia. On
Monday, during an FAO meeting in Rome, it was calculated that the
situation in East Africa urgently needs some 1.1 billion Euros. A
second summit was held in Nairobi yesterday, only the World Bank
and some European countries have offered concrete commitments for
help.
Please note: The schools that are closing are state run. All of New Ways Nutritional Rehabilitation centres (NRCs) are open and providing food to over 2,500 children across Turkana
Author: Jo Siedlecka
Date: Thursday, July 28, 2011
Source: ICN