Hunger Grows in Kenya as Crisis Unfolds
Ethnic attacks and political unrest threaten a once peaceful tourist mecca.
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan. 4, 2008 — -- In Kibera, Kenya's largest slum, at least 1,000 women and children waited outside in the hot sun all day for the Red Cross to distribute desperately needed food.
"I am very hungry," cried one woman. "I haven't eaten for three days."
Those in Kibera represent a growing humanitarian crisis in Kenya. The Red Cross estimates at least 100,000 people have been displaced since violence broke out after the disputed re-election of President Mwai Kibaki last Sunday.
The United Nation's World Food Programme issued a statement today that it would supply food to the Northern Rift Valley of Kenya, where most of the displaced people are, as well as other conflict regions in Kenya.
"WFP is working in cooperation with the Red Cross, U.N. agencies and the government to provide food assistance to the displaced and other victims of violence as soon as possible," the statement read.
Food and fuel supplies are dwindling all over Kenya as well, leaving the poorest of Kenya's poor, such as those in Kibera, with nothing.
"There's been a lot of looting," said Kibera resident Abdul Raza Kiongo. "Most of the shops are closed down, and we find that now the price of the items has really risen." He added that milk and bread cost nearly twice as much as before the violence.
The Kenyan Red Cross said it is doing everything it can to help people in need. Kibera is especially worrisome, said Abdishakir Othowai, the special projects manager of the Kenyan Red Cross Society.
"The slums of Kibera are the poorest of the poor," said Othowai. "We are thinking over 90 percent of them may need assistance."
But politics continued to keep the people in Kibera from receiving food.
An opposition rally was being set up just a few feet from the Red Cross truck. When Othowai and other Red Cross officials arrived to distribute the food, they were not happy with the nearby rally. "We cannot have a Red Cross food distribution right next to a political rally," said Othowai. "The Red Cross does not get involved with politics."
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