Kenya is on the verge of a health and food crisis

According to a British NGO, Medical Emeregency Relief International (MERLIN), there is a major health and food crisis looming in Kenya if medical, food and other critical supplies do not reach the most affected areas as soon as possible.Speaking to the AFP, Wubeshet Woldermariam, Merlin’s Country Director in Kenya, says that, “People are being forced to drink unsafe water – risking diarrhoeal diseases, infection and dehydration,” and that “The longer the crisis continues, the greater the risk to people’s health.”If peace isn’t restored within the next few days, disease outbreaks and severe dehydration are very real threats.”You can read the rest of the story here .Meanwhile, two Red Cross trucks packed with food supplies arrived in Kibera attempting to deliver food, quickly turned away after the workers were simply overwhelmed by the huge number of hungry and helpless residents who turned out.According to South Africa’s The Times newspaper, the mood quickly soured and one woman grabbed a loaf from a riot policeman standing by watching the event unfold.As we have been reporting for days now, Kenya is painfully locked in a political crisis which is now devolving into a major humanitarian disaster if aid workers are not able to safely get in and out of the most affected areas of the country and render aid as needed.Some of the larger, more established NGOs are paralysed by events on the ground and are not willing to take the risk just yet.US humanitarian organisation CARE released a press statement yesterday saying that it is not letting it’s workers in Western Kenya to go out in the field due to security concerns. Western Kenya is one of the hardest hit areas of the country affected by the post-election violence.There are other major organisations like The World Food Programme, UNICEF and others that are pre-positioned to deliver aid but have not made any movement to attempt to reach people in need.On a more positive note, blogger Kenyan Patriot is reporting that there is a smaller, niftier NGO (we need more like these, if you know of any, please let us know where they are and how they can be helped) called Common Hope for Health that is working in Western Kenya and is sourcing supplies from Uganda. Here is the update.We are closely following this story and will add more updates as we get them.

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