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Drought causes tension
11/01/2006 11:36 - (SA)
Nairobi - Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on Tuesday urged pastoralists throughout his drought-stricken nation not to fight over scarce water as conditions continued to worsen around East Africa amid dire international famine warnings.
Millions of livestock-dependent people in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia were already reeling from mass deaths of cows, goats and camels and Kibaki called on Kenyans "to avoid conflict over watering points," emphasising that "everyone should have access to water unconditionally".
He said: "Let us live peacefully. Water must not be used as a source of conflict among communities that have co-existed peacefully since time immemorial."
Kids die of malnutrition
The drought had put an estimated 11 million people in the Horn of Africa on the brink of starvation.
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, at least 40 people, mainly children, had already died of malnutrition and related illness in northeast Kenya alone since December.
Some 2.5 million people in Kenya were expected to need food aid to survive by the end of next month and in addition to the human toll, thousands of head of cattle and other livestock had died from hunger and thirst.
Arid, semi-arid regions
The drought had raised fears of tribal clashes as the competition for water became more intense. Rival tribes had fought repeatedly for water and pasture rights in Kenya, mainly in arid and semi-arid regions.
On New Year's Day, Maasai tribesmen brought emaciated livestock to the capital, demanding that they be allowed to graze on the heavily guarded lawns at Kibaki's official state house residence and said nothing was being done to ease the situation.
The government refused for security reasons, but officials said on Tuesday that they had increased spending on water projects from $32m in 2002-2003 to $144m this year and would spend $19m in the next six months to find new sources of water.
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