Friday, July 22, 2011

Raila in plea to donors for more aid as he releases maize from strategic stocks

Prime Minister Raila Odinga. He predicted a three percent growth of Kenya's economy this year during an address to a Chicago business group in the US on Thursday. Photo/FILE
Prime Minister Raila Odinga (pictured) Prime on Thursday announced that 500,000 bags of maize will be released from the reserves.. Photo/FILE
By WALTER MENYA, wmenya@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Thursday, July 21 2011 at 22:33

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Food in the Strategic Grain Reserves will be used to feed the hungry.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Thursday announced that 500,000 bags of maize will be released from the reserves.
A cash transfer by M-Pesa or Smart cards to extremely needy cases has also been introduced.
It will seek to provide Sh2,000 a month to 200,000 people.
The strategic reseves hold 2.2 million bags, way below the ideal eight million bags.
“We are fully aware that the further withdrawal of 500,000 bags will put us in a precarious position but given the gravity of the current crisis, we have no other option,” he said.
Fulfil pledges
Mr Odinga appealed to foreign governments to fulfil their financial pledges for the more than 10 million people at risk of starvation in the Horn of Africa.
He said donors should help finance the purchase of food and to replenish the reserves which is estimated by government will cost Sh6.9 billion.
Kenya has called an international conference in Nairobi next month to increase more funding from foreigners, he said at a news conference in his office on Thursday.
So far, pledges for relief aid have come from the US, UK, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Australia, African Development Bank and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs among other donors.
“Other nations and agencies must follow without further hesitation,” he said.
Mr Odinga also reiterated his earlier call to aid agencies to open feeding centres inside Somalia to halt the exodus to Kenya.
Apart from feeding its own people who are at the risk of starvation, Kenya has been thrown in the centre of the worst refugee crisis as Somalis fleeing drought and insecurity cross the border in their thousands.
An estimated 400,000 refugees are now in Dadaab, which was initially built for 90,000. According to Mr Odinga, overcrowding and the moving in and out of the camps by refugees were adversely affecting the livelihood of Kenyans in the neighbourhood, and also pose security risks.
Locally, the areas considered to be in crisis have widened steadily. The government has now put the number of Kenyans in need of food assistance to 4 million up from 2.4 million in May.
Accordingly, Mr Odinga said the government was distributing 200,000 bags of maize from the previous 100,000 a month to cover the people at risk of starvation as the relief programmes are stepped up.
In addition, the government will expand the existing cash transfer programmes - the Elderly and Orphans and Vulnerable Children Programmes.
In the slums in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu, the government will implement a programme to distribute two gunny bags per household to assist them in growing food in open spaces nearby.
The PM also assured local farmers that the government will continue purchasing their produce, at prevailing market prices, despite allowing importation of maize.

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