Two wire-service stories:
From Reuters...
(An earlier version is also still available on AlertNet.)
Kenyan prisoners will skip lunch on Sunday to help millions of compatriots facing starvation, a gesture they hope will draw attention to the crisis, officials said on Saturday.
Dozens of people and hundreds of livestock have died of hunger and thirst due to a drought in the arid eastern and northern regions of Kenya. Media reports have put the death toll at 30 but there have been no official figures.
Officials said the prisoners had been moved by television images showing desperate mothers with malnourished children, hungry people in hospitals and dead livestock in northern Kenya.
"We were surprised by their decision because it was voluntary," said John Isaac Odongo, the commandant of Kenya's prison staff training college.
Odongo said more than 50,000 prisoners would miss lunch. He did not say how much would be saved by the gesture.
The prisoners said it was a small gesture and hoped Kenyans would take up the challenge and assist those in need.
"Those suffering out there are our brothers and sisters," said James Kamutu, who is serving a life sentence at the Naivasha maximum prison.
Kenyan officials say 2.5 million people are affected and President Mwai Kibaki on Dec. 24 announced that the government would give about $40 million to address the situation.
The Meteorological Department has said the drought could extend to March when the rainy season is due.
In a televised New Year address to the nation, Kibaki said he was declaring the drought a national disaster.
"To ensure that we have adequate intervention on the ground, I am declaring the famine a national disaster," he said.
"This morning we welcome the New Year, at a time when some parts of our country are experiencing severe famine. These ares have faced crop failure and depletion of livestock."
Tens of thousands of detainees in Kenya have decided to skip a meal on New Year's day to save money in a bid to assist millions of people facing severe food shortages, prison officials said on Saturday.
Prison department spokesperson John Isaac Ondongo said the move by the inmates, estimated at 50 000 across the east African country, was as welcome as it was surprising.
"We were very surprised when the prisoners came up with the decision and we thought at first it was a joke," he said. But "it is quite a good gesture."
Odongo said that officials had yet to determine how much money would be saved in the country's 93 correctional facilities, but the sum would be handed over to humanitarian groups.
Inmates at Naivasha, the country's biggest prison, confirmed they would forego Sunday's lunch to save money as their part in helping some of the 2,5 million people expected to require food aid just to survive by February.
"We welcome the decision with open hands as this is the first time that prisoners anywhere in the world have agreed to do this voluntarily," said Ambrose Ngare, the officer in charge of the facility.
The Kenyan Red Cross Society (KCRS), which is coordinating operations to cope with the threat of famine in the north-eastern and coastal regions, said the move strengthened their resolve to help.
"We appreciate the gesture. It gives us strength to help others," said said Abdulkadir Farid, chief of disaster operations at the society.
Prisoners said they had reached the decision voluntarily once they learnt of the plight of those facing hunger through the media, which have dubbed the current crisis the "Christmas famine".
"Those suffering out there are our brothers and sisters and we need them once we get out of this place," said James Kamutu, who is serving a death sentence.
Prisoners in Kenya now have access to television and newspapers following a government reform programme launched when President Mwai Kibaki came to power in 2003 amid reports that the facilities were characterised by inhuman living conditions.
"Prisons have changed and we can afford to give our brothers some of our food rations without getting affected," said Simon Ole Sakrop, another death row inmate.
On Friday, Kibaki renewed an appeal for $100-million to meet a shortfall in funding to help in coping with severe food and water shortages, which has thus far claimed at least 20 lives and hundreds of livestock in northern Kenya.
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