Specialized food to reach Turkana on Wednesday

Written By:Carol Gakii,    Posted: Mon, Aug 01, 2011

Gullet said Unimix is used due to the current maize shortage in the country. Trucks containing 150 Metric Tonnes of specialized nutritional food Unimix bought through donations by Kenyans under the Kenyans for Kenya initiative will arrive in Turkana by Wednesday. Kenya Red Cross Secretary General Abbas Gullet says the trucks are in Eldoret and will take one more day to get to Turkana adding that the roads in the area are in very bad state. Speaking to Kenya Broadcasting Corporation on phone Monday, Gullet said that the food which is expected to feed hunger stricken families in the area for the next six months will be stored in a warehouse and will be distributed in small portions to the residents. Gullet said Unimix is used due to the current maize shortage in the country. The Kenyans for Kenya initiative has so far raised 80 million shillings. The initiative was mooted by the Media Owners, Safaricom and Kenya Commercial Bank and is expected to help raise half a billion shillings to feed the starving Kenyans. Transfer service Meanwhile, yuMobile has joined other corporates to support Kenya Red Cross in raising funds to save lives in the drought stricken areas of the North Eastern part of the country. The mobile service provider has set up an account on its mobile money transfer service yuCash, through which subscribers can make donations to the Kenya Red Cross Society. In addition yuMobile will bear all the costs usually incurred by subscribers to send money towards the same cause. While commenting on the campaign, yuMobile Country Manager Madhur Taneja said, "Even as we support this initiative, we urge the government and people of Kenya to come up with long term remedies to these recurring catastrophes." To make a donation yuMobile subscribers can go to their yuCash Menu on their phone  and select Send Money, enter 200140 for Kenya Red Cross Society as the Business Code, enter the amount you wish to send followed by a Short Message (max 32 characters) e.g. Drought Response Donation. This will be followed by a screen showing all the details to confirm accuracy of the transaction.  Subscribers then enter their yuCash PIN and press OK. They will then receive a confirmation SMS from yuCash. yuMobile subscribers can make a minimum contribution of Ksh 100 on yuCash and also send a messenge with the contributions at no extra charge. Those wishing to donate less than ksh 100 towards the initiative can send a sms message of hope to the short code 1111 which will be charged at ksh 10 per sms with all proceeds going towards the Kenya Red Cross Drought response initiative. Food production Elsewhere, Prime Minister Raila Odinga is Monday leading government officials in a tour of parts of Turkana over the drought and famine crisis. The PM will oversee distribution of food and also tour sections of the county where some farming has lately taken off with support from the government and international development agencies. Raila will also explore ways to expand attempts at food production by locals to cut reliance on relief food. The PM's delegation will visit Todonyang, Lodwar and Kerio in Turkana Central and Morulem in Turkana East. Ravaging drought Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim has urged the government, NGOs and private sector to stop blame games and unite to save hunger stricken Kenyans from imminent starvation. Maalim said that the ravaging drought that the country is experiencing is one of ‘the worst recorded in past 60 years.' He said the number of Kenyans faced with starvation has risen and thus the need for the government and the private sector to join hands instead of wrangling. The deputy speaker asked treasury to release shs 1 billion that president Kibakihas directed for livestock off take programme. The money, he noted would assist to mitigate of the effects of the ravaging drought in the region. He said animals bought through the kitty would be slaughtered and distributed to the starving people. The Lagdera legislator said that a repeat of the 1974 drought disaster witnessed in Ethiopia can be avoided if all Kenyans are united to save their fellow starving Kenyans. He asked the international community to come in and help arrest the situation.