US embassy cable - 05NAIROBI4781

UNCLAS NAIROBI 004781 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/E, AF/EPS, AF/PD, AND OES/ENV 
USAID FOR AFR/EA 
USDA/FAS/EC FOR CHAMBLISS 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: ECON, EAGR, EAID, ETRD, PGOV, PREL, TBIO, KCOR, 
SENV, KE, REFERENDUM 
SUBJECT:  WFP: POLITICS, ECONOMICS HINDER KENYA'S FIGHT 
AGAINST HUNGER 
 
Sensitive but unclassified.  Not for release outside USG 
channels. 
 
1.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  World Food Program (WFP) officials 
briefed Ambassador and Emboffs on the November 2nd appeal 
for donor support for Kenya's continuing food emergency, 
which will likely keep more than 1.2 million people at risk 
until at least February.  WFP Country Director Tesema 
Negash expressed his appreciation for USAID's positive 
response to the current appeal and to USDA's important 
contribution to on-going school feeding programs throughout 
Kenya.  WFP confirmed that Kenyan government officials are 
distributing food aid not to meet critical needs but in an 
apparent effort to win votes for the November 21 
constitutional referendum.  In general, though, the GOK is 
contributing to the WFP's food programs.  Longer-term, 
however, there is need for the Kibaki administration to 
seriously work towards ending the county's seemingly 
endless cycle of hunger.  Participants also discussed the 
critical need for attention to the nutritional requirements 
of Kenya's HIV/AIDS population and the impact on 
deforestation caused by WFP contracted trucks carrying 
charcoal between districts.  END SUMMARY. 
 
---------------- 
PERENNIAL HUNGER 
---------------- 
2.  (U) During a November 3 meeting, the United Nations 
World Food Program (WFP) Country Director for Kenya Tesema 
Negash outlined the dynamics of Kenya's ongoing food 
emergency and thanked the U.S. for its continued support of 
WFP food aid appeals.  Negash confirmed that Kenya is 
falling into a pattern of perennial food shortages despite 
the fact that much of the country had almost normal 
rainfall this year and that Western Kenya is expecting a 
bumper harvest of maize.  Kenya's on-going food emergency 
is largely due to pockets of severe poverty and poor 
1infrastructure.  Currently, just over one million people in 
Kenya are receiving food aid, down from 2.3 million in 
2004.  The current crisis will likely subside by the end of 
Kenya's "short rains" season in February.  The food 
situation has shifted away from some areas historically 
impacted by shortages, such as Turkana.  Negash explained 
that WFP assistance is targeting the most critical need 
areas, including the lowlands of Eastern Province, much of 
North Eastern Province, and some inland areas of Coast 
Province.  Accompanying Negash was Robert Rose, WFP 
Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping Unit Programme Officer, 
and Program Advisor Ben Watkins.  Also participating was 
FAS Counselor, Emergency Program Coordinator for 
USAID/Kenya, and Econoff. 
 
3.  (U) [Note: On November 2, the WFP issued a press 
release to reinforce the GOK's September 13 appeal for $25 
million response to an imminent food crisis in a number of 
Kenyan districts, with an estimated 1.2 million Kenyans at 
risk of starvation.  USAID is considering additional food 
relief.  To date, the USG contribution to the GOK's July 
2005 appeal is valued at $36.9 million.  Other donors' 
contributions include $1.7 million from the UK, $1.2 
million from Sweden, and $360,000 from Finland.  End note.] 
 
4.  (U) In addition to the U.S. response to the emergency 
appeal, the WFP official expressed great appreciation for 
our contribution to its school feeding program under the 
Dole-McGovern Act.  The U.S. pledge of $10.3 million makes 
Kenya the largest recipient of this form of U.S. aid, and 
has permitted the WFP to improve the program's underlying 
management, and not just respond to crises.  The school 
feeding program is now expanding out of its normal 
attention to rural poverty (where 1 million students are 
receiving meals) and into the growing slum areas of 
Nairobi, Kisumu, Eldoret, and Nakuru, with an initial 
target of an additional 100,000 students. 
 
-------------------------- 
IS THE GOK DOING ITS PART? 
-------------------------- 
5.  (SBU) Given that the current emergency appeal 
represents less than 2% of Kenya's anticipated maize 
harvest, the Ambassador asked if the GOK had the ability to 
break this cycle of hunger.  Negash replied that, in 
general, the government is doing what it can:  Kenya is now 
 
the second largest donor to WFP's current appeal, with a 
commitment of 5,000 MT.  However, Negash believes that the 
GOK does not have the financial resources to pay for 
transportation expenses.  Negash said that the GOK is 
developing a "fast track" plan for reducing food security, 
but progress is hindered by Kenya's current over- 
politicized atmosphere.  He highlighted some of the 
barriers that Kenya has to overcome to make real progress 
against chronic hunger: 
 
-- pervasive poverty in routinely impacted areas, like 
North Eastern Province, where family purchasing power is 
extremely low.  In some affected areas, total household 
income does not even equal 80% of minimal nutritional 
requirements; 
 
-- addressing growing land degradation and increasing 
population growth in arid and semi-arid regions; 
 
-- increasing migration from poor rural areas to 
overpopulated and unhealthy urban slums; 
 
-- terrible road infrastructure between productive areas 
and the regions of need; 
 
-- the GOK's insistence on directing significant resources 
to a strategic grain reserve. 
 
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FOOD FOR VOTES 
-------------- 
6.  (SBU) Negash also expressed frustration (and confirmed 
recent press reports) that pro-draft constitution 
government officials were distributing food in an obvious 
effort to buy votes from certain communities.  He described 
this as a "fairly general" distribution of 2-3 kg bags of 
emergency food per household, and publicizing it as 
emergency assistance, even though the food is not going to 
the most critical areas.  As a result, WFP is suspending 
its food distribution to areas where the GOK is handing out 
food.  Negash firmly believes this "political use of food 
aid" will end with the November 21 constitutional 
referendum, and hopes the GOK will then refocus on need, 
not votes. 
 
----------------- 
GMO UNCERTAINTIES 
----------------- 
7.  (SBU) The WFP officials said that they value U.S. 
contributions of corn more highly than wheat, especially 
for its feeding programs in Kenya's refugee camps, where 
milling capacity is limited.  When asked about recent GOK 
requirements to document any shipments that might contain 
biotech varieties of maize, Negash said that Kenya's 
concerns about GMO products is environmental, not 
nutritional, and so should not be a barrier as long as the 
shipments are for food aid and not commercial or 
agricultural use.  [Note:  The Kenya Plant Health 
Inspection Service (KEPHIS) has recently initiated 
accompanying documentation requirements detailing the GMO 
status of imported commodities.  They have expressed to FAS 
Counselor a reluctance to allow imports of any whole grain 
GMO commodity due to the possibility of its propagation. 
End note.] 
 
-------------------------------- 
NUTRITION NEEDS FOR AND HIV/AIDS 
-------------------------------- 
8. (U) The WFP officials expressed their concern that much 
more needs to be done to assure that HIV/AIDS patients have 
access to adequate nutrition, highlighting reports of 
serious medical consequences (including paralysis, 
blindness, and stomach ulcers) associated with anti- 
retroviral (ARV) treatments in patients without adequate 
nutrition.  According to Negash, now that ARV regimens are 
becoming widely used in Kenya, the impact of poor nutrition 
among that population is becoming critical.  Also, some 
medical centers refuse to start a patient on ARVs until 
they are regularly receiving sufficient nutrition.  The 
Ambassador agreed that there is a well-established link 
between adequate nutrition and ARV effectiveness, and added 
that good nutrition is also vital for HIV-positive 
individuals who do not yet require ARVS, but are constantly 
 
fighting- off opportunistic diseases.  The Ambassador 
explained that the U.S. PEPFAR program, which is a major 
provider of ARVs, was not initially set up to deal with the 
nutritional side of the equation, but that this could be an 
important complementary area for other donors. 
 
------------------------- 
DEMAND-SIDE DEFORESTATION 
------------------------- 
9..  (U) Ambassador Bellamy shared his concern that WFP- 
contracted trucks, which are bringing food relief to 
refugee camps in Northern Kenya, were transporting locally 
produced charcoal on their return trips, facilitating a 
process which is exacerbating the very serious 
deforestation (and crop failures due to desertification) 
occurring in these arid and semi-arid areas.  He asked if 
the WFP couldn't prohibit this practice as part of its 
contracts with the trucking companies.  Negash agreed that 
this is a serious problem, but thought it would be 
difficult to impose a ban on such transport in their 
contracts.  He did offer to write to the companies to raise 
the issue, and to also encourage Kenyan authorities to 
enforce the laws against the production and transportation 
of charcoal. 
 
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COMMENT 
------- 
10.  (SBU) Thanks to the WFP, U.S. agencies, and other 
donors, it is likely that Kenyans facing severe food 
shortages will, for the most part, be fed.  However, both 
the Ambassador and USAID highlighted the need for the GOK 
to seriously work on ending Kenya's on-going food 
emergencies and the annual ritual of requesting 
international assistance.  Just as importantly, the GOK 
needs to be held accountable for politicizing its food aid. 
Otherwise, we can expect even more of the same in the run- 
up to the 2007 presidential election. 
 
ROWE 
 
_______________________________ 
1Given that the national poverty line still stands at 56%, 
the word 'pocket' appears an understatment.  That said, I 
would attribute the growing food insecurity to, the rampant 
monocropping culture (mainly maize which does not do well 
in times of moisture distress), lack of livelihood 
diversification (mostly referin to pastorlists in NEP), 
poor infrastructure, poor and politically motivated 
economic and soical policies.