New tactics for Ukambani residents as hunger continues to bite

By Daniel Nzia

Residents of a remote village in Kibwezi District have stopped expecting rain. For them, hope for food comes in the form of spiraling columns of dust on the road and the emergence of gleaming four-wheel drive vehicles.

Desperate villagers in Kisingo sub-location of Makindu have been lining up at strategic areas on a dusty road, almost sure that benefactors will come, especially on weekends.

Their generous providers are families of business people, some of them Asians from Nairobi, who mine stones locally.

Face of hunger: This woman was among Makindu residents who wait at the roadside for anyone to give them food. She said she had not eaten for days. Photo: Daniel Nzia/Standard

They have been donating food at some of the worst famine hit areas, much to the relief of residents who have resorted to eating inedible roots.

On a roadside last weekend, as several four-wheel drive vehicles appeared, excitement erupted in a group of frail looking women who claimed they had not fed their children for days.

"Nimooka! Nimooka," (they have come, they have come), shouted children who had accompanied their grandparents.

The vehicles stopped and Mr Vaghji Kerai of the Indian Community Association alighted, accompanied by other members of his group.

They carried packets of maize flour, mangoes and biscuits.

Mr Kerai said he was touched by the plight of the starving residents, considering the area had not received rain for several seasons now.

Felt disturbed

"We felt disturbed by their plight and came together to help with what we could collect from our group and friends," he said.

In order to help them in the long-term, Kerai and his friends have invested in building earth dams for the residents to enable the villagers engage in small-scale irrigation farming.

Kerai termed the food situation in Makindu as life threatening.

Nzui Kisilu, 90, told The Standard the last time she saw a grain of relief food was last December. The World Vision had distributed the food.

Some residents said they had not seen Government relief food since then yet they heard so much was sent there.

And as death stares at thousands in Ukambani, local leaders are appealing to the Government and NGOs to help avert a catastrophe.

"The situation is so severe that we may soon start losing people to the biting hunger," Cabinet Minister Mutula Kilonzo said recently.

Through his Mwaki Foundation, Mutula has written to the chairman of East African Satsang Swaminarayan Temple asking them to help, as the area has not received rain for four years.

OP pledges help

The Nairobi Metropolitan Development Minister has also written to the Office of the President, which has pledged to help.

According to a letter in response to his plea, the PS Office of the President has directed the managing director, National Cereals and Produce Board to send 4,000 bags of maize, vegetable oil and Unimix flour to the DC of Mbooni East and Mbooni West districts.

Meanwhile, Makueni District has more than 300,000 people in dire need of food.

Makueni MP Peter Kiilu says the most affected areas in his constituency are Kitise, Kithuki, Kathonzweni and Nguu, where there has been drought for more than five months.