Kenya: Villagers Go Without Food And Drugs As Rains Destroy Roads

The Nation (Nairobi)

December 11, 2006
Posted to the web December 11, 2006

Nation Correspondents
Nairobi

Famine-stricken villagers in 17 manyattas have been cut off from the rest of Wajir District following heavy rains.

The Provincial Administration said yesterday that roads to the remote villages had become impassable.

Consequently, the villagers, who depend on government assistance, were yet to receive the September rations.

The authorities also said that relief trucks sent to deliver October food supplies got stuck at several points between Wajir Town and the affected areas.

By yesterday, the Government and relief agencies were still trying to reach the villages, some of which are 200 kilometres from Wajir Town.

The worst affected are Burde, Diif, Korondile, Leissanyu, Mansa, Batalow and Dadajahola.

On Friday, councillors and civil society groups in Wajir warned of a possible tragedy if medicine and food did not reach the villages urgently.

More than 20 councillors told a press conference that the situation was worsening.

Disease menace

Councillor Ahmed said that diseases like diarrhoea and malaria were now a menace.

He appealed to the Government to airlift the families to safety.

The Nation, however, learnt that 15,000 mosquito nets donated by Unicef reached Wajir District but had yet to be distributed to the needy villagers.

Elsewhere in Wajir Town, the cost of living has steadily risen due to shortages of food such as sugar.

Elsewhere, a human skeleton was on Friday retrieved by Administration Police officers from Golimba Chief's Camp in Thika District, as it floated in the upper Athi River.

Central deputy police officer Sammy Maritim said police had received information that a man had drowned while trying to cross the river using a home-made boat.

The skeleton was later taken to Thika Hospital Mortuary.

At the same time, a group of women washing cloths in River Ndarugu in Thika, also spotted the body of a man floating.

Police who arrived at the scene on being alerted by the area chief, retrieved it with the help of the public. The body was also taken to the same mortuary.