ISIOLO-LAIKIPIA, 23 September 2009 (IRIN): – The drought that has ravaged parts of northeastern Kenya, killing a large number of livestock, has affected the availability of milk, in turn undermining child nutrition, say officials.
“I decided to migrate from Losuk [in Samburu District] to save the remaining livestock and my family, but they almost perished along the way,” Joseph Lemanyan, a livestock keeper, said.
“Most [of my livestock] died as we migrated. My youngest child, a girl, became ill and died on the way.”
Lemanyan’s family is among hundreds to have moved south to the foothills of Mount Kenya, but there they lost more cattle because of the cold weather.
“I arrived here [in August] with 42 [heads of] cattle… half of them have died due to cold here,” said the father of five, who left Losuk after losing 64 heads of cattle within three months.
The death of so many cattle has reduced the supply of milk, which should form a large part of the daily diet of children.
“Children are on the brink of death… The numbers of malnourished children coming to our feeding centres is going up and up and we expect it to get worse,” Catherine Fitzgibbon, Save the Children’s deputy director in Kenya, said on 22 September.
“If we cannot get more food or cash to the region urgently to help families buy food, more children will die.”
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