Australia offers Kenya Sh150m food aid

By PPSPosted Sunday, February 1 2009 at 14:49

Humanitarian assistance granted when Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula met and held discussions with Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hon Stephen Smith, at the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa. Australia has donated humanitarian assistance worth two million dollars (Sh150 million) to mitigate the current food crisis facing the country.

The humanitarian assistance was granted when Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula met and held discussions with Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hon Stephen Smith, at the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa yesterday. Mr. Wetang'ula hailed the warm and cordial relations existing between the two countries adding that Kenya is one of Australia’s longest-standing bilateral partners and looked forward to strengthening the existing ties. The two Ministers discussed and expressed concern over the growing food security crisis in the Horn of Africa which has also affected Kenya.

Mr. Smith expressed optimism that the funds would go a long way in urgently distributing the much need humanitarian assistance to the people of Kenya. Australian Non Governmental Organizations working in Kenya shall receive funding to the tune of One million dollars to urgently provide the affected people with relief supplies. The other tranche of the funds shall be availed to the World Food Programme (WFP) which has been providing relief food to about 1.5 million Kenyans affected by the post-election violence and the current drought. Australia has provided donor assistance worth 22 million dollars to Kenya since 2003. Last month President Mwai Kibaki declared the current food emergency facing the country a National Disaster and launched a campaign to raise over 37 billion shillings required to address the urgent situation.

Meanwhile Mr. Wetangula has condoled the families, relatives and friends of both the Nakumatt Supermarket and the Molo fire tragedies that have caused deaths of many innocent Kenyans. The Minister said that he was extremely saddened by the two tragic fire accidents and confirmed that he stood with all the families of the deceased during this very difficult moment they had unexpectedly lost their loved ones. He further wished survivors of the two devastating fire accidents a quick recovery.