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The heart of Kenya in the grip of hunger

Children in the forest looking for food instead of going to school

03-10-2022 by redazione

The situation is more than dramatic and in some ways appears irreversible.
Hunger has descended on the semi-arid regions of Kenya, made even more barren by the long drought that does not seem to be ending, with very little rainfall.
It is no longer only the regions in the far north or the desert regions near Somalia that are suffering, with their people accustomed like animals to nomadism in search of grassland and arable land. Now the centre and coastal hinterland also suffer severely from this situation, made even more dramatic by so-called progress that contributes to the desertification of the environment, uprooting plants and turning fields into concrete.
This happens, for instance, in Makueni County, above Voi in the direction of Nairobi, and Ukambani, further east.

In Makueni County, the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) reports that some 219,000 people from 54,000 households are in dire need of food, with children under five and lactating mothers the worst affected.

"Families have already exhausted their food reserves since the rains three years ago. Children have been hard hit, especially because they have to go to school and depend on one meal, which most families lack,' Daniel Mbuvi, NDMA coordinator in Makueni, told The Standard newspaper. Schools in 15 of Makueni's 30 wards are in serious food crisis.

Associations that distribute food have told of children who, instead of going to school, roam the forests of the area in search of food, picking berries and fruits.
The worst thing (and we have been fighting this for a long time, as you know) is that baobabs, centuries-old plants that have saved lives in the past, continue to be cut down. The fruits and their powder provide free, high-protein, vitamin-rich sustenance. During food emergencies in the 1970s and 1980s, families drew on the 'grand old men' and managed to feed their children. Today there are fewer and fewer of them, eliminated to make way for houses and sheds or to widen roads.
Several school leaders, who spoke to the Standard, described the situation as extremely alarming and called on the government to immediately send food supplies to support the school feeding programme.

"The fact is that the famine has hit us hard and our children have been the hardest hit. Some go to school hungry, while a significant number have temporarily dropped out of school due to lack of food. The situation must be stopped before it gets out of hand," said a primary school teacher in Masinga sub-county.

TAGS: fameemergenzabaobabaiuti

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