KENYA - Up to 3.3 million Kenyans are facing starvation after severe drought stunted crops in much of their country. A severe lack of adequate rainfall, resulting in a complete breakdown of harvests and food production, is threatening to claim the lives of the country's poorest men, women and children. Especially vulnerable are those who have already been weakened by the AIDS crisis that is ravaging this region of Africa.

The rainy season that supplies Kenya with the water needed to grow crops typically runs from March to June of each year. This year, some of the country received rain from the second week of April through the first week of May. But even though the rains were occasionally heavy in places, much of the country remained dry during May and June. This year's poor rainfall -- combined with a lack of rain received in previous years -- is having a cumulative affect of the nation's ability to provide food for those most in need.

Severe drought is to blame for acute food shortages in Kenya's Eastern, Coastal and Central provinces, and the situation may not improve soon. Poor rainfall is seen as the cause for at least a 60-percent crop failure in five of Kenya's seven provinces. "Severe emaciation is already noticeable in many children, elderly people, and pregnant and lactating women," a relief worker in Kenya explained. "Children are also at risk of dropping out of school to migrate with their parents as they search for food."

"More than a million of those who are most at risk of starvation are children,"

explained Missionary of Africa Fr. Richard Roy. Fr. Roy worked as a missionary in Chad before returning to head the organization's Washington, DC, office. "Unless
Kenya receives immediate, emergency relief -- the situation could become catastrophic!"

The only food currently available for many of those living in the bush region is a wild fruit, called loma, which is salvaged from the dry weeds. The fruit is poisonous unless it is boiled for at least 12 hours; the taste is sour and unpleasant. "Even the loma won't last forever," Fr. Roy continued. "Imagine having to dig for roots to eat -- or boil
poisonous fruit in order to survive! Many of these poor people are praying that someone will help them. If we don't help them -- who will?" The Missionaries of Africa are currently accepting donations to provide emergency relief to victims of Kenya's devastating drought.

EAST AFRICA - A full-scale drought emergency is threatening most of East Africa including Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya, a United Nations report announced recently. Wells and watering holes have completely dried up; additionally, the drought has destroyed most crops causing
malnutrition to set in among the poorest and most vulnerable of the population. In Kenya alone, an estimated 3.3 million people in 26 regions throughout the country are being severely affected by the drought emergency. The devastating crisis is due in large part to a lack of widespread rainfall throughout much of the region in
recent years.

The report went on to say that reports of deaths from severe water shortages were beginning to emerge from several regions in Ethiopia.

"Ethiopia is declining into a crisis situation with some districts already in a state of emergency,"

the report stated. "There is widespread suffering in the region due to the cumulative effects of years of poor rains. Should the rains fail or perform poorly, then many zones in the Somali region of Ethiopia are facing a full-blown humanitarian emergency."

"The thing that is most threatening to the lives of the people in the region is the loss of their livestock," explains Fr. Richard Roy. Fr. Roy is the director of the Missionaries of Africa's Washington, DC, office. "Without their livestock, they have no source of food for years to come! Once their cattle die, they have no way of buying or bartering for food for themselves
or their family.

"For many of those who are suffering," he continued, "once their cattle are dead, it is only a matter of time before they themselves will starve to death. Unless people come to the aid of those caught in this drought, their situation will be completely hopeless."