By JUMA KWAYERA

A forensic audit of the Arid Lands and Natural Management Project in northern Kenyan links hunger in arid and semi-arid regions to graft.

In what would make the current appeal for international food relief look like merchants of death shedding crocodile tears, the World Bank report accuses the State of condoning pilferage of funds for provision of water, food and restocking.

Although Kenya is among the Horn of African countries affected by food shortage occasioned by prolonged drought, the Forensic Audit Report: Arid Lands Resource Management – Phase II, published on July 17, casts the grim situation in the north as one precipitated by negligence or financial fiddling.

The report shows suffering would have been avoided if there were accountability and transparency in the mega- project.

The audit, carried out by the World Bank’s Integrity Vice- Presidency (INT), covered expenditures in seven districts during the 2007-2006 and the 2007-2008 financial years, which involved a review and analysis of 28,000 documents.

"The fraudulent behaviors in the transactions identified were broadly consistent in all districts and the headquarters itself and were found in the categories of expenditures including fuel, vehicle repairs, training (capacity building), allowance and per diem, payroll non-recurrent assets," the report, published as the first hunger-related deaths were recorded in northern Kenya, it says.

The Government refuted reports of a riveting situation in northern Kenya, saying the only challenge it faces was the distribution of relief from food secure regions in Rift Valley and western Kenya.

Through spokesman Alfred Mutua, the Government said on Thursday no Kenyan had died of famine.

Living costs

Details of how Government officials pinched money meant for water and infrastructure development in arid regions ties in with a preliminary report by the Parliamentary Select Committee on the High Cost of Living chaired by Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba.

"The hunger situation is self-inflicted. We have a Government that manages by crisis. We raised the issue of how serious hunger was in northern Kenya in June and we recommended that the Government provide food before the situations got out of hand. It sounds awkward to pretend to care for people dying from a situation that would have been averted," says Namwamba.

The Arid Lands and Natural Management Project was funded by the International Development Association, the lending arm of the World Bank to the tune of $124 million (Sh11.16 billion).

It had three components covering drought monitoring, community-driven development, and support for local social and economic development. The projected targeted the provision of water and infrastructure development, billed as key to opening up the regions for economic investment.

The report says nearly 30 per cent of the money that was to cover 28 districts was uncounted for and alludes to possible embezzlement. It is therefore no coincidence the famine is severe in the same regions.

Relief efforts

The World Bank’s support to the project totaled Sh10.8 billion, broken down as: First credit of $60 million (Sh5.4 billion) was approved in June 2003, and a second tranche of $60 million (Sh5.4 billion) approved in August 2006. The project closed in December last year as scheduled.

Multiple international relief agencies’ reports point to growing fears of the situation deteriorating given the number of women and children affected.

According to UN’s Mark Bowden, famine is declared when the acute malnutrition rates among children exceed 30 per cent and more than two people per 10,000 die every day.

Mr Brown says malnutrition in parts of northern Kenyan is on the rise, while in Somalia, with the highest rate in the world, more than half of all children are malnourished.

"At present, 2.4 million people (in Kenya) are food-insecure and the number is expected to increase," said Pippa Bradford, the UN World Food Programme Country Director.

Bradford says 3.5 million people could be food-insecure from next month. Olivia Yambi, country representative for the UN Children’s Fund told reporters 385,000 children were "moderately or severely" malnourished, while another 90,000 pregnant or lactating mothers face malnutrition.

Migration by families searching for food is decreasing enrolment in some schools, while exposing children to the risk of child labor, abuse and prostitution, the UN said.

The latest edition of Refugees International magazine pinpoints poor governance as the cause of the humanitarian crisis Kenya and its neighbours face.

It says: "There, the famine is a result of a lack of governance and direct human actions, which have deprived millions of people access to food. Droughts can be mitigated and controlled when a nation has a functioning government."

Namwamba concurs: "There is much corruption in Government that the food sectors are literally controlled by cartels."

In the current circumstances, the Budalang’i MP says: "Our Government cannot claim legitimacy. Six months ago, it was obvious we were going to hit brick-wall. Instead, we drove headlong into it."

Claims of the existence of criminals in the food industry with links to high offices were corroborated by Kenya Ant-Corruption Commission Director PLO Lumumba, who told The Standard On Saturday he was investigating complaints about inappropriate dealings in the sugar sector and at the National Cereals and Produce Board.

"In the Ministry of Agriculture, there is massive wastage of funds," said Lumumba, without connecting it to corruption.