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Current Situation in Kenya

Current Situation in Kenya
about increasing food prices at the local markets

a comment by Wyclife Owour Oyugi,
Project Manager of Nyota’s Day Care Centre in Western Kenya

I am very saddened by the situation around me everyday, life has changed drastically to the higher side at a very rapid pace, this puts the majority of Kenyan people in major hazard in survival.

In our Nyota-Kita here in Lwala, Kenya, we are facing a hard time to handle the situation, more and more secondary students are sent back to us for the fees increment, we have tried to do our level best to accommodate them, but more and more orphans report here still for assistance, from their respective schools.

The village where we are is highly in need, and the small children in the village of lwala stand in need of food and medical attention than ever before, it turns out to our knowledge that the higher the food shortage the more the sick (diseases). The first major problem now is caused by the tripled price increment of all the house hold commodities, including the most essential commodity such as food.

The Kenyan Government announced lack of fuel in Kenya in February to the whole country, In Kenya the electricity companies, factories, industries, and even transporters, all and everything depends on fuel availability and cost. but many people in Kenya who doesn’t own cars never knew or understood the impact. immediately the whole market price shot up by 40% in all commodities, and in March it went a notch higher by 18.5% more. now approximately 4million people are feared to fall in the wrath of hunger from June till end of August.

Maize prices in the local market have shot up from 50/- KES 140/- KES, and maize being the main food in Kenya, now it has turned into the most scarce food its so hard to afford it as before. The government of Kenya has declared state of emergency on 1st June, and in many regions across the country people have been dying because they lack food for their empty stomach, and some died after eating the poisonous cassava, just  in attempt to fill their stomach for survival with anything foo-dish.

KENYAN GOVERNMENT
The Kenya cereal Board part of government which has the task to store food for the country’s population have openly reported that the government stores are running out of food reserves. And the plan to manage the situation might fail due to a big number of needy Kenyans who are standing in need now. The inflation rate also short up highly that the Kenyan shilling have lost 27% of it value to the US dollar and that gives the Government a heavy task to import enough food from the international Markets.

SITUATION ON EDUCATION SECTOR:

It has also affected many learning institutions which are not financially strong, some schools dry regions have been shut down, some boarding secondary schools in Ukambani are victims of the same, and others have increased their school fees to cover extra the costs for the students, this puts Nyota e.V in the limelight , because Nyota e.V sponsors, are sponsoring several orphaned student in these Secondary schools, and our sponsors might not be aware of the tough time and the challenges happening right here right now.

I would like to summarize with a Luo saying which says, “NO SITUATION IS PERMANENT“.
Nevertheless I hope that we are able to support our neighbours here. We have set up an emergeny food programm to buy maize and other food in order to support families in need. Every little support is welcome. Donations can be made on Nyota’s betterplace profile or on our website www.nyota.de