Action Against Hunger intensifies its activities as the political crisis threatens to unravel further
Nairobi, Kenya - Humanitarian organisation Action Against Hunger has expanded its emergency operations in Kenya, launching programmes in Nairobi (the Jamhuri cenre for the internally displaced) and strengthening activities in Nakuru and Molo. The instability from Kenya's post-electoral turmoil continues to disrupt the capital and threaten vulnerable groups by limiting access to food and water.
Emergency Activities in Nairobi, Nukuru, Mandera and Garissa
Action Against Hunger's emergency activities have intensified after rapid assessments indicated considerable needs in Nairobi's slums and among the displaced in Nakuru. Reinforcing our programmes with additional experts in water and sanitation, nutrition and logistics, our emergency programmes have focused on distributions of essential non-food items (NFI)some 3,500 family kits have been handed out to date (soap, cooking pots, tarpaulins, jerry cans, etc.); much needed sanitation and hygiene improvements latrines, showers, clothes lines, washing areas, hygiene promotion programmes, etc.; water supplywith a focus on water trucking (3 times a day) and structural improvement to water systems where needed; and nutrition surveillance, support and health education.
Health and nutrition are not immediate humanitarian concerns in Nairobi, but we are closely monitoring the situation. Ongoing nutrition screenings in Nairobi have detected some 200 children with moderate malnutrition while screenings in Nakuru have so far turned up fewer. Sanitation is the most pressing humanitarian need in these areas, and our field teams are working in close coordination with the Kenyan Red Cross to address these needs. Our current programme capacity is poised to support some 30,000 people over the next 3 months while we carry out ongoing evaluations over time.
Water, sanitation and nutrition are major problems in Mandera and Garissa where children with severe and moderate malnutrition have been admitted into our therapeutic nutrition programmes at much higher rates than normal. Action Against Hunger's programmes in the area collectively support more that 60,000 people with life-sustaining activities, but we are concerned about additional needs as our teams are already fully mobilised and Kenya is already facing a range of crises on a number of fronts (droughts, climate hazards, economic dislocation, etc.).
Action Against Hunger is alarmed by the lack of real political progress and concerned that the humanitarian crisis will spin further out of control, resulting in broader insecurity and further street clashes between demonstrators and state police. This crisis needs an immediate political solution.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
Press contacts:
Christine Kahmann: +44 (0)208 293 6196 / +44(0)78 0693 4524 / c.kahmann@aahuk.org
James Phelan: +1 212 967 7800 / jphelan@actionagainsthunger.org
Action Against Hunger is an international humanitarian organisation, working in 43 of the world's poorest countries. Its vocation is to save lives, especially those of malnourished children, and to work with vulnerable populations to preserve and restore their livelihoods with dignity.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
Luo tribe members celebrate during ethnic clashes in Nairobi's Huruma neighbourhood January 20, 2008. At least three people were hacked to death with machetes in a slum in Kenya's capital on ...
