Food price crisis in Lodwar

By Lucy Murunga
July 7, 2011

Seventy-year-old Lorise Napeitak, has been hoping for aid relief, but to no avail. Food is hard to come by in most households in Turkana; residents are now surviving on wild fruits and palm seeds. The drought in Kenya has left 3.5 million in desperate need of emergency food assistance.

Eight-year-old Lowoiyaron Epakan tries to make a meal out of a palm tree seed, the only food available in the face of deepening drought. Her brother two-year-old Napus, also relies on the seeds.

Two-year-old Napus, eats Ready-To-Use-Therapeutic Food (RUTF) also known as plumpy nut.

Six-year-old Joyce Kiroto, a sponsored child, fills her plastic bag with enough palm tree seeds feed her family. Joyce’s mother was forced to remove Joyce from school because she can no longer pay her teachers.

Roselyn Aduk, a mother in Turkana and beneficiary of World Vision’s Napeikar irrigation scheme displays kale crops, a vegetable that has become a delicacy in the house. She and 500 other families are able to cope with the increasing food insecurity to a certain extent, thanks to the irrigation scheme.

Roselyn collects maize stalks from a neighbor’s farm to be used to feed livestock that are succumbing to the effects of the drought. Over five hundred households and thirty-seven sponsored children families are benefiting from the food security project.

Long’ole sips water from a dirty container, after completing his share of porridge, which was the only meal he had taken since the previous night.

Ten-year-old Ekai in Kerio village in Turkana indulges in a meal of boiled maize, the only meal available to him; he says they sleep hungry most days.

World Vision Nutrition Project Officer in Lodwar, during screening of children in a dispensary. World Vision is partnering with UNICEF to support the government with supplementary feeding and therapeutic treatment of severely malnourished.

Joyce stays at home to help her mother feed the family’s two goats that remain after the rest succumbed to death following the biting drought in the region. She only eats once a day.

Turkana, Kenya -- The food security situation in Kenya is unlikely to improve in the coming months following the failed March-to-May long rains. The situation deteriorated further due to a sharp increase in staple food and fuel prices. This has put a major strain on the population, now facing serious food insecurity.

Increasing food prices are having a negative effect on children whose parents cannot afford to purchase food commodities. In isolated districts like Turkana, the price of food has increased by 120 per cent.

Twenty-five-year-old Roselyn Aduk, a mother of five from Turkana, is one victim of the rising cost of living. “I have had to cut on spending. I no longer include sugar and oil in my food basket,” she explains. “If we must take tea, then we take it black and without sugar. Vegetables are cooked without adding oil, because these two items have become a luxury.”

Coping with Increasing Prices

Without a regular source of income, Roselyn has had to make tough choices in her household. “Both my husband and I do not have regular jobs. Providing food for the family has been a struggle,” explains the mother of five.

“I have had to be brave and tell my family to get used to sleeping hungry. As a mother this has been so hard to bear. The children cry a lot. But if the food is not available, what do I do?”
If Roselyn’s family is not sleeping hungry they are skipping a meal – sometimes breakfast and lunch, so that they can at least have dinner, which is still dependent on whether food is available.

“Most times, parents skip meals so that their children can have some food in their stomachs,” offers Roselyn. Worse still, this mother has had to withdraw her three young children from school to divert the fees to food expenses.

This trend is replicated in most households in Turkana district. Relief food from the government is not promising; and when it does come it is very little, it is barely enough.
With food becoming scarce, Roselyn is beginning to worry about the health of her children, who are unable to even play—something she never used to do. Even though she has a small portion of land where she has planted some crops like maize, vegetables, green grams, tomatoes and sorghum, it will be another one or two months before the harvesting period.

Food Prices Rise

Before the food prices went over the roof, going to the shops or the market was a thrill. It has since become a dreaded experience for Roselyn who struggles to survive on less than a dollar a day.

“I used to afford a kilogram of sugar, now I cannot buy even a quarter of a kilogram,” Roselyn despairs. “I have now resorted to buying food items in small quantities.”

In January, Roselyn says her food basket (consisting of sugar, maize flour, salt, oil) cost her only KSHS 100 (US $1) and could last the family an entire week. “The other day I went to the shops to buy a half kilogram of sugar and I was told it was KSHS 100. I came back home without the sugar,” Roselyn explains.

April, May and June have been the most difficult months in Roselyn’s household. To survive, Roselyn sometimes collects palm tree seeds and boils them to make a meal for her children.

Many Sleepless NIghts

The soaring prices of fuel have caused Roselyn sleepless nights. “Sometimes it is hard to get to the health facilities. They are very far away, the nearest is 20 km away, and resorting to the cheapest mode of transport, walking, has grave repercussions. Patients die on the way,” Roselyn says.

In the case of an emergency, getting to the hospital will cost Roselyn KSHS 1,200 (US $13). “It used to cost KSHS 500 (US $5) in April, the prices of commodities seem to be increasing every day, since January prices have more than doubled,” Roselyn notes.

Since World Vision began the Napeikar irrigation project, food security has improved in most households. Once she begins to harvest her crops, Roselyn will not have to worry about the dreaded trips to the market.

One harvest is enough to feed Roselyn at least two or three months. “I get about 2-3 bags of maize which we just consume at home, I am not able to sell,” she says.

World Vision has provided Roselyn and other farmers with certified seeds as well. However even with the seeds, things do not always sail smoothly. “Sometimes the crops fail and we lack food for an entire three months,” she adds.

For now food has become monotonous; green vegetables and palm tree seeds is all that there is to eat, until August when a bumper harvest is expected.

World Vision’s Napeikar Food Security Project

Four hundred and twenty five acres of land have been developed and are now under the irrigation scheme. The program has helped build and improve the resilience of a section of the Turkana community in Napeikar. Currently the scheme is feeding just over 500 families, 35 of these are World Vision sponsored families.

“Each family is supposed to get a half acre of land, but the very vulnerable and orphaned get an acre of land,” explains Francis Elim, the officer in charge of food security in Lodwar Project area. “This is to enable their families to educate the children and also feed themselves,” he adds.

World Vision has also been supporting the farmers with certified seeds and pesticides, and with trainings on farming skills and marketing of farm outputs. Maize stalks are given to cattle, sheep and goats.

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