Countries

Overview

After the near total failure of the 2009 Long Rains across many parts of Kenya, WFP is working with the government and other humanitarian partners to provide food assistance to 3.8 million Kenyans until the next harvest.

The current drought is the worst since 2000, and one in every ten Kenyans is now in need of outside help. Many areas have suffered four consecutive failed harvests, malnutrition rates among young children - already above emergency levels in some areas - are rising, and cattle are dieing in their thousands.

Many Kenyans are resorting to more and more desperate survival strategies, including pulling children out of school to work or beg for food, or eating just one meal each day, made up of cheaper and less nutritious foods.

High food prices have taken their toll on the daily lives of Kenyans. An in-country shortage meant that maize prices in September 2009 were 100 to 130 percent above normal.

In order to address the deteriorating situation further, WFP expanded its school meals programme to reach nearly 1.2 million children in Kenya.

Poverty and food insecurity are highest in urban slums and among pastoralists and farmers in remote, arid and semi-arid lands, which comprise 80 per cent of Kenya’s land mass. Many households in these areas are chronically poor, and there are persistently high malnutrition rates among children under five.

Kenya is a low-income food-deficit country with a GDP per capita of around US$1,240 (2007 World Bank). The 2007 UNDP Human Development Report ranked Kenya among the “medium human development” countries of the world, placing it 148th out of 177 countries. WFP operations in Kenya support the Government's efforts in implementing all eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

WFP Activities

WFP is working to connect farmers in Kenya to markets through the Purchase for Progress initiative. Learn more

As the food aid arm of the United Nations, WFP uses its food to meet emergency needs and support economic and social development. WFP's mission is to save lives in emergency situations, improve the nutrition and quality of life of the most vulnerable people, particularly children and expectant and nursing mothers, and help build assets and promote the self reliance of poor communities.

WFP is providing school meals to nearly 1.2 million children in Kenya. These are the most vulnerable children living in arid and semi-arid lands, and urban slums, who will receive at least one nutritious meal a day through WFP.

Western Kenya and the Nairobi slums have very high HIV/AIDS rates and growing destitution. WFP is helping 64,000 HIV/AIDS affected people by giving families food so they are able to take their anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs. Patients on ARVs need to maintain good nutrition in order to ensure the drugs are effective.

In addition to its drought response programme, WFP feeds around 340,000 refugees, mainly from Somalia and Sudan, who live in camps in Kenya.

In a strategic shift in direction, to respond to the challenges of high food prices, and food security, a new programme called Purchase for Progress, or P4P, was rolled out in late 2008. In a set of pilot activities, WFP buys food from small holder and low-income farmers in developing countries.

By giving small scale farmers access to fairer prices and a market, rural livelihoods will be boosted, by putting more cash into the hands of small scale farmers.  Kenya is a key country in the P4P programme.

WFP is also working to increase self-reliance by encouraging the more widespread use of drought-resistant crops and more efficient rainwater harvesting techniques.