Over 1.8M Kenyans facing acute food shortage, Gov’t seeks Ksh.4B to avert crisis

A report by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) now shows that 42 million people in the 6 member states are staring at an acute food in the coming days.

According to the report, the region continues to face multiple shocks, ranging from extreme weather patterns such as flooding and drought, war, as well as micro economic issues and debt.

The report notes that over 1.8 million people in Kenya’s arid and semi-arid areas are among those at risk of food shortage.

Kenya is set to receive below average rains in the last quarter of the year. This could see low food crop production, with the IGAD report projecting that the low rainfall in the country could increase the number of Kenyans at risk of acute food shortage from the current 1.8 million to 2.1 million by early 2026.

According to the State Department for ASALs and Regional Development Principal Secretary Kello Harsama, to avert this, the government will require over Ksh.4 billion to caution the vulnerable population, largely in Eastern and Northern parts of the country.

Charity Mumbua, a food security expert at IGAD, said: “42 million people or 29 percent of the analysed population faces acute food shortage in 2025. In Kenya, specifically in the arid and semi-arid lands between October 2025 and January 2026, the number is expected to increase to 2.1 million, but this is because of the expected below average seasonal rains.”

Harsama, on his part, noted: “We have alerted our institutions. The State Department for Special Programs is on standby to provide any Kenyan affected by the food shortage. More than Ksh.4 billion will be required to take care of that.”

Additionally, the report shows that in the region, 11.4 million children are malnourished, out of which 3.1 million require life-saving treatment.

The data underscored the Horn of Africa’s unenviable ranking as the global epicenter of malnutrition, with IGAD warning that the region is not making sufficient progress despite years of pledges and interventions, even as experts called for a shift away from aid dependency.

“These statistics are not just abstract data, they represent the lives of people living amongst us. The figures and the evidence we have provided show that we are not on track to end hunger, achieve food security, and improve nutrition by 2030,” Mumbua added.

The seventh edition of the IGAD Regional Focus of the Global Report on Food Crises continues to provide essential information, analyses, and insights to collectively address the causes and consequences of escalating acute food insecurity and malnutrition in the region, with the hope that policy shapers will take advantage of the actionable data to enhance their efforts in making their countries food secure.