Taking the bull by its horns in a bid to address the hunger situation in Kenya

Written by Daniel Saenyi  Police Constable Hashim Mohammed Elmogo donated his entire July salary to the Kenyans4Kenya relief kitty on a day that saw the total amount raised surge towards the Sh100 million mark. Constable Hashim Mohammed Elmogo, attached to the Provincial Police Officer Nairobi stunned staff at the Kenya Red Cross offices when he walked in with acheque bearing his entire wage for the month of July. “I am very touched by the images of starving children and emaciated women. We need to do all we can to ease the situation and save our fellow Kenyans,” said Mohammed.[Photo / Gina Din / Courtesy} I am a patriot of Africa and pride myself in being African and it is for this reason that I am pained by the wide spread food insecurity in Africa. I strongly believe that our situation is usually determined by our mindset and with this in mind it is only logical to say we as Africans are not thinking right. I do not know about the rest of Africa but with the resources we have in this country food should not be a problem. It is a big embarrassment the way foreign and local media alike splash  our TV screens with pictures of hunger stricken men ,women and children on the brink of death because of  starvation and then have to listen to pot bellied politicians that are supposed cater to these people downplay such situations claiming that these are isolated cases. Some like the government’s spokesperson Dr. Alfred Mutua would not be safe to walk around those Kenyans who have no energy to scare away a fly threatening to enter an old woman’s eye and play ‘kalongolo’ when he says no Kenyan is in dire need for food aid. Well so what if it these cases were truly isolated? That is beside the point; this should not be an issue for us in the first place. What they are saying is that if one so called ‘isolated’ family starves to death its all good just as a mass burial is needed. How I ask, is that a good leadership? Western province alone is the richest part of this country with the potential of feeding the whole country all year long yet we are buried neck deep in food related foreign debt. If only we had the right amount of pride we would not let ourselves be reduced to beggars when we have all we need to solve the hunger problem that has us all looking so desperate. Funny but true, food insecurity has very little to do with actual food availability in the country but rather what we do with what we have but unfortunately all we see is our leaders cursing the weather, twiddling their thumbs and if there is any thinking they will be doing, perhaps it is trying to think up new excuses to borrow more money on our behalf. Don’t forget that it is you the tax payer who will pay these debts till kingdom or (God forbid) you starve to death. See? You can even remember one, calling himself a people’s savior, claim that he has never seen trees produce rain. Now how do you expect such a person to deal with such serous issues like coming up with mechanisms, structures, in this case, long term to overcome hunger situations like we are witnessing now? I do not blame them though, I would probably do the same if I was placed in such a position by people too ignorant to realize that I am a no good leader and unfit for the position bestowed upon me.Its aan old song that has been sang over and over again but I will say this again given the how close we are to the next general election, Please do vote wisely. The only way we can secure a future for our brothers and sisters dying in the north is by electing leaders with at least an ounce of humanity. We make it so easy to be deceived. What we need is solutions arrived at by looking at the roots of the problem. Yes roots, because the problem of food insecurity is as a result of many contributing factors that will be with us forever if we do not act quickly and immediately. You do not need me to tell you that this country has a big problem with disaster preparedness let alone management that is why every time there is a disaster in the country we have the same problem of widespread hunger  case; in point the 2007-2008 violence and the SLDF triggered civil unrest in Mt. Elgon a while ago. Having no plans to deal such occurrences is like having a million shilling business with none of your assets insured. MT Elgon region of Kenya, beautiful but above all, a region which feeds Western because of its rich fertile soils. [ Photo Protus Simiyu / West Fm] A region such as Mt Elgon can be a key solution to the Kenyan hunger problem given it richness in agricultural potential however  it is not possible  to tap this potential with farmers ducking arrows and machetes flying over head . Political violence and civil unrest within or between countries always result in food scarcity in the affected areas this is because it disrupts the natural agricultural process that ensures food availability in the country and how bad it gets depends entirely on how long the unrest lasts. That aside, I often wonder who among our leaders will note that the contributions made almost yearly by kind hearted Kenyans is not the solution the problem and that there is indeed a need for the government to put up strategies that will help curb the problem for good. Our leaders need to understand that given the current situation, Kenyans cannot afford to be choosy when it comes to GMO maize (that has been scientifically proven to be safe) because we are in a crisis. Just like The honorable Prime Minister Raila Odinga I would like to wonder, Are we to let starving Kenyans die just because we are suspicious when this maize has been subjected to years of testing?, If anything,reproductive fertility is the last thing on the mind of a starving individual who has not had a meal in over three weeks. The Genetically modified maize is the latest controversy, at the moment or is it a life saver, soon after the Life straw filters that were distributed in Western Kenya whose noble cause was propagated for family planning causing unnecessary fear among the populace of the region. GMOs may just be the knight in shinning armor for Kenyans with this current food crisis If only we let go off our pride, we would not be suffering at this rate and would have the GMO being supplied in plenty and not bickering about it in parliament, funerals, church, roadsides, newsrooms, market places, bars and any other gathering.  Am not saying I want GMOs, they creep me out, but am looking at the good side of the stuff. Kenyans are always the first ones to cry the loudest when faced with a tough situation like famine at the moment, and the first ones to reject the help. Starvation was allover, the tax free maize rumored to be imported we wanted it at a throw away price, then It faded away, now we have GMOs, it becomes recipe for cancer. And at this point, I should say am greatly impressed by the way Kenyans really love their fellow Kenyans, what with the ‘Kenyans for Kenya Initiative’? I can not overemphasize it. Nonetheless, who said GMOs were bad? Maize is now retailing at a high Sh120 for two kilograms! Whoever came up with the GMO idea should even be crowned a humanitarian hero, instead of whining of the hunger, he found a solution. Why would someone waste all those lab resources to create a poison, this is just our superstitious nature kicking in. People in the country are going hungry at the moment and some are even dying in refugee camps due to starvation. Sure Kenyans want to plant their own food, they have even made no GMO slogans, but will hunger pangs spare the starving ones? GMOs are especially important for developing countries like Kenya where simple nutrition is of utmost concern. GMOs provide a potential for increasing the nutritional value of plants. GMOs can introduce new sources of essential nutrients which can fight health problems caused by nutrient deficiencies. We may be good on relying on agriculture, but our crops are prone to pesticides and diseases, the GMOs are not susceptible to such and require less herbicides and pesticides. To the poor farmer this is a safe haven; you spend less and get a lot out of the harvest. Back to the controversy, Life straw is the all good thing that has received little criticism, I applaud it too, but these are its demerits. Even bacteria’s have their economic importance, I got that from my biology class, life straw is running down some business, diseases like typhoid had their own contributions to the economy; business was good with selling the medicine and researches were burning their midnight oil and more ere being trained to teach others and the cycle goes on, never ending. With life straw, no more typhoid, what will happen to all that technology used in inventing typhoid drugs, and all the drugs now lying idle on pharmacy shelves? If we knew life straw will come up, we would not have wasted time with antibiotics and stuff. Back to the chemistry, all that knowledge will now be rendered useless. The pharmaceutical companies making the drugs are in fear of running out of business. The filter takes like a life time to fill a 20 litre can and it is cumbersome to use, and as I see it, currently, time is money, who has a whole day to fill the can after every 30 minutes, maybe they would have made a 20 litre filter so one can fill it and let it take its ample time draining. This article just puts me in the same position as the rest of the Kenyans, I am just one though not sure if najivunia kuwa mkenya I see what I want to see in everything, and in this case, what I want to see is what others do not want to.