One-third of children found to be malnourished in Kenya

One third of children in the Turkana region of northwestern Kenya are malnourished, The Independent can reveal, due to a devastating web of factors including aid cuts and climate-driven environmental impacts.

- Nick Ferris, The Independent

Recent monitoring of the one million-strong population of Turkana - Kenya's second-largest county — has found that some some 70 per cent of people are not receiving enough nutritious food. Meanwhile, 87,000 children under five and 36,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women require treatment for acute malnutrition.

Now, Save the Children has revealed that its health screenings of children in the district have shown one third of children currently coming up as acutely malnourished, posing a serious threat to their physical development and threatening their long-term health.

"I was shocked and saddened to see so many children and pregnant and breastfeeding women suffering from hunger and malnutrition," said Alice Oyuko-Awuor, a clinical manager with Save The Children's Emergency Health Unit.

"Countless parents told us they are lucky if they can feed their children one cup of plain maize a day, and that they often go to bed hungry. Others are trying to survive on wild fruit."