Kenya has the highest number of people skipping meals or living without basic diets in East Africa, and is second only to South Sudan in the number of people classified as food insecure.
This is according to a new report by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), which shows that of the 33 million people classified as food insecure in the five East African countries, 13.6 million are Kenyans.
By June 2024, South Sudan will have the highest proportion of its population living in food insecurity (32.73%), followed by Kenya with 26.46% of its population living in food insecurity, according to the report, prepared by AGRA and its partners, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the US Agency for International Development.
The report analyses the prevalence of food insecurity in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and South Sudan within the East African region.
“As of 30 June 2024, the number of people in five selected countries in East Africa who did not have enough food to consume was 33 million, an increase of 100,000 people since May. This indicates a deterioration in the food insecurity situation in these selected countries, mainly due to South Sudan,” the report notes.
In June, 21.14% of Rwandans were classified as food insecure, while 18.74% of Ugandans and 9.24% of Tanzanians were also living in difficult conditions, having to skip meals or survive on limited diets.
According to the report, people with inadequate food consumption are those who have poor or minimal food consumption according to the Food Consumption Scale (FCS), which measures the diversity of household diets and the frequency of food consumption.
The survey looks at the frequency with which a household consumed eight food groups in the week preceding the survey to classify households as “poor,” “average,” or “fair.” A household is considered to have a poor diet if it does not consume staple foods and vegetables every day and never or rarely consumes protein-rich foods such as meat and dairy products, while a household is considered to have an average diet if it consumes staple foods and vegetables every day and oils and legumes several times a week.
While the organizations note that the current level of food insecurity across the region is lower than it was in June last year, when 42.9 million people were food insecure, they point out that Kenya has seen a massive increase in the number of people affected over the past two years.
“With the exception of Kenya, all other East African countries recorded declines in the prevalence of undernourished people over the past year,” Agra notes.
The report indicates that Kenya in the region witnessed a 74.36 percent increase in the number of people suffering from food shortages, while countries such as Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda witnessed a decrease in the number of people suffering from food shortages compared to the situation in 2022.
The main drivers of hunger and food shortages in East Africa remain conflict – widespread in South Sudan – seasonal dynamics such as floods and droughts, and macroeconomic shocks such as trade disruptions.
The report noted that “above-average rainfall in some parts of the region may have affected the ease of transporting crops, impacting prices.”
In Kenya, the report indicates that food shortages remain critical across the country, with flood-affected areas, particularly Garissa, Tana River and Mandera counties, facing crisis levels.
In South Sudan, emergency phase outcomes remain in 28 counties, and disaster phase outcomes are likely to persist in Pibor County in the Greater Pibor Administrative Area and among returnee families due to low seasonal food supplies, insecurity affecting road transport, the suspension of UNHAS airdrops in April, and deteriorating economic conditions.”
Reports of food shortages in Kenya come even as the Ministry of Agriculture continues to report improved harvests of maize, rice, beans, potatoes, sorghum, millet and avocado for the 2023 harvest season, and expects further increases in the production of some key food crops this year.
The ministry expects corn production to reach 50 million 90-kilogram bags this year, up from 47.6 million bags last year and 34.3 million bags in 2022.
According to the latest data from the Central Bank of Kenya, the ministry also expects wheat production to grow by 55.8 percent to 5.35 million bags in 2024, sorghum by 48.1 percent to 3.26 million bags, and potato production to reach 29 million bags this year.