18 Aug 2009
The United Nations' World Food Program (WFP) says drought in Kenya has left over one million people in dire need of food aid.

"What we have here is an extremely difficult situation and people are saying it is the worst drought since 2000," Gabrielle Menezes, a spokeswoman for WFP, said Tuesday.

The agency is already providing emergency food aid to 2.5 million people in the country, but another 1.3 million still need help, Menezes added.

She appealed to donors to come forth and help alleviate the situation.

The areas hardest hit by the drought are the semiarid southeastern regions and parts of central Kenya, the Associated Press reported.

Those areas generally have only one harvest a year of maize - Kenya's staple - usually after autumn rainfall called the short rains. But the rains have largely failed this year.

Esther Kiplimo says she has given up farming her 1-acre plot of land because of the failed rains. Now she breaks rocks in a quarry with her family, earning less than $1 a day.

"On some days we have to sleep hungry," she said.
presstv