Kenya drought worsening, Christians are responding

Kenya (MNN) — Drought conditions in Kenya are bad. Information and Communications Minister Mutahi Kagwe announced that the number of Kenyans at risk from the food crisis has increased to 3.5 million, up from 2.5 million. The number of districts affected by drought is expected to rise to 37 from 17, just over half of Kenya’s 70 districts.

Food for the Hungry has been working in Kenya for years. FHI’s Keith Wright says the situation is definitely getting worse and quickly. “It’s accelerating as people lose more and more livestock. That’s really what they rely on for food, and as they die they really run out of resources quickly when that happens. So, what we’re seeing, unfortunately, the situation getting worse every day,” says Wright.

FHI is working through the local church, Wright says. “We’re currently ramping up our food aid for the most vulnerable, which that number has increased, and we’re hoping to prevent that from getting to the drastic measures we saw in Ethiopia.”

Wright explains why the church is important. “The church is there to stay and we feel that working through them is an important part of a sustained approach to all this, but also it’s an important part of how God commands us to reach out and work through the church. And, this part of Kenya is primarily Muslim, so having churches reach out and meet needs in this way really builds good will and ministry outreach.”

The good news to this drought is that it could have been a lot worse had Food for the Hungry not been in the area already. “Even five years ago the population would have been hit four or five months ago, we’re seeing that we’ve been able to build up the resiliency to where the impact has been delayed already.”

Funding is needed for food aid and shipping the aid into the region. Click on the link below to help FHI minister to these desperate people.