Four counties in emergency phase as 2 million people facing food shortage

A new food security report shows that nearly two million people in four counties are facing acute food shortages.

Experts warn the situation could worsen unless urgent action is taken to alleviate it, with the number expected to rise to seven million in the last quarter of the year, owing to projected below-average rainfall during the October–December period.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report (IPC) shows that the population in four counties of Baringo, Mandera, Wajir and Turkana are in the emergency phase, with the majority facing acute food shortage.

The report shows that nearly 1.8 million Kenyans are facing crisis levels of hunger, which is 11 per cent of the population in arid and semi-arid counties.

The outlook is even more worrying; from October to January, as the short rains fail or underperform, the number of Kenyans facing a food crisis is projected to rise to seven million, owing to below-average rainfall, thereby reversing recent gains made after the long rains.

Other drivers of this worrying trend are high food prices, livestock disease, and resource-based conflicts. Already, staple foods like maize are trading 15–20 per cent above average in several counties, with poor households forced to cut meals or skip them altogether.

A severe cut in U.S. government funding for USAID has led to significant disruptions in programs addressing food security and malnutrition in most of the affected regions, where the World Food Programme assisted only 165,000 people in early 2025, while the Kenya Red Cross reached just 28,000 families with food aid — a fraction of those in need.

Children stand most at risk, as more than 740,000 under-fives are acutely malnourished and need urgent treatment. Another 178,000 children are severely wasted, their survival hanging by a thread.

Mothers are also vulnerable, with over 109,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women acutely malnourished.

Health experts warn that without urgent intervention, malnutrition levels in 15 counties will remain critical, exposing children to disease outbreaks like measles, cholera, and malaria, which are already on the rise.

Experts say the warning signs are clear, and unless government and humanitarian actors step in fast, Kenya’s hunger crisis will tighten its grip on millions more by early next year.