KENYA: A week of heavy rains in Kenya threatens to worsen the country's precarious food situation, according to charities working in the region.
The British aid agency Oxfam and the Kenyan Red Cross said the much-needed rains were crucial to easing a drought stretching across the Horn of Africa but would hamper aid deliveries and risked spreading disease in the short-term.
Their call was echoed by the United Nations as it launched an appeal for $425 million (€346 million) to help some 15 million people affected by drought in Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Kenya.
Jan Egeland, UN emergency relief co-ordinator, said: "In the Horn of Africa now, there are tens of thousands dying from the extreme vulnerability they are living in."
He said malnourished children were particularly at risk to otherwise preventable diseases.
Nomadic pastoralists have been badly hit by a series of failed rainy seasons which have killed off their herds of cattle, goats and camels. Now all eyes are on rains which began a week ago to see whether they will provide enough water to replenish wells and pastureland.
So far meteorologists say they are not enough to restore the parched land to its normal state.
Instead, the rain has caused flash floods, displacing more than 3,000 people in parts of northern Kenya and washing away access roads that relief groups depend on to distribute humanitarian supplies.
Andrew Featherstone, Oxfam regional programme manager, said: "With the coming of the rains in certain areas some people will begin to return to land where they usually graze their livestock - but this does not mean the end of the crisis. Far from it - initially the rain will exacerbate an already fragile situation."
He warned that animals weakened by lack of food and water could succumb to exposure. "The message to governments, donors and the media is that a few days rain does not end a food crisis," added Mr Featherstone.