UN Information Centre DC

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Washington, D.C.

UN Agencies Aiding Kenya with Emergency Supplies, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Expresses Deep Concern

Kofi Annan in Kenya for negotiations

Secretary-General Ban UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed deep concern about the mounting violence in Kenya and lent his support to former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Mr. Annan is in the country to help facilitate negotiations for a political solution to the disputed presidential election results that have resulted in a destructive cycle of attacks and deaths.

More than 700 people are believed to have been killed in the violence, which first began a few weeks ago after Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner over opposition leader Raila Odinga in December elections. The crisis has also forced some 255,000 to flee their homes.

Mr. Annan is joined in Kenya by the former Mozambican first lady Graca Machel and Tanzania's Benjamin Mkapa.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is also in the region for visits in Rwanda and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where he will address the opening of the African Union summit meeting and speak to African leaders about the Kenya crisis on Thursday.

The UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour is calling on the Kenyan government to abide by its international human rights obligations in responding to demonstrations, including holding police accountable for their actions.

Meanwhile, the UN country team reports that over the weekend, the World Food Programme (WFP) and its partners distributed food rations to more than 30,000 people in six Nairobi slums as well as the Kisumu slums.

The security situation continues to delay the delivery of aid, and WFP is working with the government to ensure military escorts to provide safe passage for trucks carrying supplies.

WFP also delivered seven metric tons of corn-soya blend and split peas to the Nyanza Provincial Hospital for supplementary feeding managed by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Kenya Child UNICEF warned that children and women have borne the worst of the violence in Kenya and the agency is drawing attention to rising sexual violence and seeking resources to combat it.

(Right: A Kenyan child with her family's belongings at a transit center in Mulanda, Uganda. © UN Photo)

Preliminary reports collected by an inter-agency group, led by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) with support from UNICEF and the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), indicate "the tragedy of girls and women in the informal camps who trade sex for biscuits, protection, transportation, or are raped while trying to get to a latrine during the night."

The agency has dispatched more than $1.2 million in emergency supplies and has had teams working on the ground in the major hotspots since the crisis began. But it said it needs more funds to protect children from violence and abuse, and to assist those who have been worst affected.

UNICEF is urgently seeking $3 million for emergency programs that can "protect and help children today and build a safer Kenya tomorrow."

Meet the UN

UNICEF's Executive Director

Ann M. Veneman

Executive Director

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

Anne Veneman has outstanding qualifications and numerous accomplishments in the area of agricultural development and food security.

Before joining UNICEF, she served as the Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture, the first woman to hold this post, and has presided over a momentous period in the history of American agriculture.

She has focused strongly on new approaches to help feed the hungry around the world. To help meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving global hunger by 2015, she has promoted science and technology as a means to accelerate agricultural productivity.

In 2003, she organized and hosted the first-ever Ministerial Conference on Science and Technology, which brought ministers from 120 nations to Sacramento, California, to discuss how science and technology can reduce hunger and poverty in the developing world. The conference, as well as subsequent regional conferences and follow-up activities, helped recapture the momentum of the 1996 World Food Summit.