President Mwai Kibaki on Friday declared the current food shortage facing the country a National Disaster and launched a campaign to raise over 37 billion shillings required to address the situation.

The President further directed all arms of the government to marshal available resources in order to respond effectively to the situation.

Speaking at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre today while making an international appeal to address the food crisis, President Kibaki expressed concern over the deteriorating food security for poor households.

"Our national assessment is that 10 million people are food insecure and require emergency support. These people will not be able to meet their minimum food requirements between now and the end of August 2009 without emergency measures," said the President.

The President warned government officials and unscrupulous traders against the manipulation of the food supply chain at the expense of the common mwananchi adding that the government would crack down hard on them.

He said, "Let it be clear to all that under no circumstance will my government allow the livelihood of our people to be sacrificed at the altar of the private gains of a few people."

H noted that the government was taking varied measures to address the situation in the long term adding that the declaration of the famine as National Disaster was an emergency aimed at immediately averting further suffering of the Kenyan people.

In the medium term, President Kibaki said that in this approaching planting season the government would avail 93,000 metric tonnes of fertilizer at affordable prices to farmers and reduce the price of seeds by 10 percent.

He said the government would provide farmers with affordable mechanical ploughing services in areas suitable for farming through the revived agricultural machinery services.

"I would therefore like to make an appeal to our farmers to increase the amount of land planted, so as to increase food production in the 2009/10 crop season. In indeed, our farmers remain out best hope for food self-sufficiency," he said.

With regard to the current food shortage, the Head of State said that the government has made arrangements to import 7 million bags of maize at an estimated cost of 17 billion shillings in order to mitigate the crisis.

He said the government has also set aside 3 billion shillings for procurement of additional relief food supplies and another 1 billion shillings for non-food emergency interventions, while yet another 1.2 billion shillings has been allocated for the provision of water, purchase of livestock and supply of hay in arid areas.

The President said the government in collaboration with the World Food Programme was feeding 1.4 people under the emergency operation programme while the government was also feeding another 1 million people through direct interventions.

"However, these ongoing programmes cannot absorb the sharp increase in numbers of needy people requiring relief food without additional resources," he said.

Out of the required 37 billion shillings, President Kibaki said that the government had raised 5.2 billion shillings and urged development partners to help cater for the shortfall of about 32 billion shillings to cushion the 10 million Kenyans from imminent starvation.

The government estimates that 30.2 billion shillings will be required for emergency food supplies, 3.8 billion shillings for the education sector, 1.3 billion for water, health and nutrition programmes and 2.6 billion is required in agricultural and livestock interventions.

The most affected areas are marginal districts in Eastern, Coast and Central provinces as well as pastoral and agro-pastoral areas of Rift Valley and North Eastern provinces.

President Kibaki attributed the current food crisis to severe drought facing the country plus other non-drought factors particularly the post-election violence that heavily disrupted the season in the country's breadbasket region of Rift valley as well as the global energy crisis.

He said that the country's economy faced high inflation worsened by the effects of the post election events as well as by the international food crisis and the oil crisis.

"The global energy crisis resulted in our producers facing high fertilizer prices, which in turn led to lower levels of use. The global food crisis led to high commodity prices, which made imported grains very expensive," he said.

The President commended the international community and development partners for their previous responses to such emergencies and urged them to avail their support on time to save the lives of the needy citizens.

Speaking during the occasion, Prime Minister Raila Odinga assured the donor community and other relief agencies of the government's commitment to ensure transparency in importation and distribution of maize and other cereals to affected citizens.

Mr. Odinga who is the chairman of the Cabinet Food Security Committee said the necessary mechanisms were also being put in place to seal loopholes that may be used by a few unscrupulous people to create artificial shortages.

The Prime Minister said that despite the social and economic instability occasioned by the current food crisis, the government has no intention of re-introducing rigid price controls.

Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka commended the media for highlighting the plight of the hungry in the country saying most regions recorded 100 per cent crop failure.

Several development partners appealed to the government to relax rules at the port of Mombasa that may delay the urgent importation of maize to the country.

Some donors pledged food aid worthy million of shillings while others said they would scale up their assistance as soon as they complete current drought assessments in the country.

Through representatives, China pledged US $ 3 million food aid and Japan Kshs. 3 billion among others

Reports indicate that ppPoor rains in the southeastern and coastal marginal agricultural lowlands in combination with an early end to the short rains season and a succession of three poor seasons, have resulted in widespread crop failure, and precipitated a likely humanitarian and livelihood crisis.

According the Famine Early Warning Systems Network - Fewsnet, some northeastern and southeastern pastoral districts have benefited from improved livestock conditions, but the early cessation of the short rains season last November could cause a rapid deterioration in pasture and water availability, resulting in a quick decline in food security in the pastoral areas.

Fewsnet in its current report says the pastoral areas in the north and south of the country, received poor short rains and require immediate assistance to forestall a major food crisis.

Already the government has indicated that 10 million persons are highly food insecure and face starvation. The number includes a provisional estimate of 3.2 million drought-affected marginal farmers, agropastoralists, and pastoralists; about 150,000 IDPs; 850,000 school children; 3.5 million poor, urban dwellers, and about 2.2 million persons affected by HIV and AIDS, including orphans.

A rapid assessment is planned for February to clarify the depth and extent of food insecurity.

The national supply situation suggests that there will be a deficit of 190,000 metric tonnes of cereals at the end of this marketing year.

Doubts are already being raised as to whether the private sector will be able to competitively source their allocation of 270,000 metric tonnes of cereals from the international market, to bolster the government effort to import 450,000 metric tonnes of cereals for both the strategic grain reserves and for commercial purposes.