NAIROBI, 26 March 2007 (IRIN) - NAIROBI, 26
March 2007 (IRIN) - Adequate rainfall in the last three months of 2006 improved food
security in the parts of Kenya affected by the severe drought that hit
the Horn of Africa last year, a famine
warning agency reported.However,
in some areas, outbreaks of diseases related to floods, as well as high
HIV/AIDS prevalence, reversed the gains of a good harvest and pasture
regeneration."Food security indicators have improved in the
previously drought-affected livelihoods. Food prices are declining
after a good long-rains harvest, livestock prices have risen in mostmarkets," the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS
Net) said in a report released on 22 March.Above-normal
0ctober-December rains caused devastating floods in northern andeastern pastoral areas, the Indian Ocean coastal region and the
lakeshore areas of western Kenya, resulting in deaths and damaged
infrastructure and crops. The floods led to the outbreak of
diseases,
notably Rift Valley Fever (RVF), which caused economic hardship to
pastoralists when the government imposed a ban on the slaughter and
movement of livestock from the RVF-affected areas in
a bid to control
the outbreak, according to the report."Significant
improvements in food security were reversed by the upsurge in vector
and water-borne diseases especially malaria,
diarrhoea, measles and
cholera. Over 150 persons lost their lives to RVF in pastoral districts
and an additional four people died as a result of cholera in Moyale
District," according to FEWS
Net.Localised crop losses caused
by floods in the Lake Victoria lowland areas caused food insecurity in
some places, despite higher-than-normal aggregate production for key
crops in the region,
the report said.About 40,000 people were
affected by the floods through displacement, loss of household and
productive assets, and loss of livelihood, especially through crop
damage and livestock
losses.The report also noted that the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the Lake region continues to undermine food security in the area."Underlying
rising food insecurity is the high
prevalence rates of HIV/AIDS that
range between 14 percent in Migori to 35 percent in Suba. Out of
152,000 school-aged children in Siaya District - where HIV/AIDS
prevalence is 29 percent, 37,000,
or 25 percent, are orphans, due
primarily to the pandemic," the report said. "The HIV/AIDS pandemic is
a growing humanitarian crisis especially in the Lake region, requiring
much greater
emphasis than is the case currently," it added.The
report recommended increased livestock vaccination against RVF, foot
and mouth disease, East Coast fever and lumpy skin disease, andrehabilitation of irrigation facilities, dykes, roads and toilets
before the long rains at end-March. Tree-planting along the flood zones
would reduce the potential degradation of land when rains
are above
normal, FEWS Net said.There was also a need to systematically
deal with the effects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, especially in the Lake
region, the FEWS Net report said, adding that the
school-feeding
programme should be expanded in areas where rates of child malnutrition
remain high.lo/jn/mw
