WFP Foodforce - The Game, The Reality, How to Help

Jan

Marcus Prior, Eldoret: Marcus Prior reports from the first WFP convoy taking food to refugees in Kenya.

WFP and other humanitarian organisations are working hard to get food and other essential supplies to people made homeless by violence in the east-African country of Kenya.

WFP is sending convoys of trucks to help the hundreds of thousands of people who left their homes, many without taking clothes or belongings.

Fighting started after recent elections that many people thought weren’t fair.

WFP spokesperson Marcus Prior travelled with the first convoy of WFP food to Eldoret, a town in the northern part of the country here many people have fled.

FRIDAY 4 JANUARY: A ROCKY ROAD

Our drive north into the Rift Valley and through some of the most stunning scenery on planet Earth was uneventful. Until we reached a place called Burnt Forest, north of Nakuru that was – well – burnt.

In one town, the largest building was torched and gutted, the marketplace razed to the ground, while in a nearby field worshippers held their hands to the sky praying for deliverance from the events that had destroyed their lives.

In Tarakwa, a town straddling the main road south of Eldoret, two church yards were crammed with people seeking refuge. And everywhere the signs of people fleeing – belongings piled high on the roadside as people waited for any transport they could find to take them out – anywhere, just out.

The charred remains of several looted trucks did not go unnoticed by our logistics officer – moving food by road was not going to be easy.

SATURDAY 5 JANUARY: FOOD IS MOVING

WFP normally only distributes a very small amount of food to school children and people affected by HIV/AIDS in this region, but at least it means we have facilities in place, including a large warehouse with significant stocks of food. Before November we never even stocked food here. A stroke of good fortune.

But our supplies aren’t enough. There is no cooking oil and no high-energy biscuits – both are on trucks en route to Eldoret which have been stranded due to the clashes which erupted after the election result was declared. We need to get them moving again.

At the warehouse, our loaders are stacking bags of peas and corn-soya milk onto Kenya Red Cross trucks. It is they who will be doing the distributions. It’s an encouraging sign – food is already moving to those in need.

A little later we head north out of town and on the city limits we are met with another scene of devastation – shops, businesses and houses burnt to the ground. It has been selective – charred shells stand next to other buildings that remain untouched.

At Soy, we find about a thousand people at the police post. They say they fled with nothing, that in many cases it was the condition for being allowed to leave their homes alive before the fires were set.

On our way back we bump into two trucks carrying our HEBs on the outskirts of Eldoret. Even better news is that the vegetable oil is now confirmed to arrive tomorrow morning. We are getting there.

SUNDAY 6 JANUARY: A POST-CHRISTMAS REUNION

Again we head north out of town, this time towards a primary school compound in the town of Noigam. When we get there, we find thousands of people milling around the classroom blocks. Most have been forced to sleep out in the open for several days now. They complain they are not eating properly, that they have no clean water and that their children are starting to fall ill. Forty percent of the displaced are estimated to be young children.

There is no food left – it has all been burnt. There are no blankets, no pots and pans.
It is tense, too. Under a tree near the entrance lies a body of a woman, the mother of two boys, who was shot and killed in an early morning attack by a marauding group of men, looking to loot the cattle the people had managed to escape here with.

Attentions are turned by the arrival of seven trucks loaded with food. With a remarkable efficiency under the circumstances, a local churchman organises groups of young men to help with the unloading. Within minutes the supplies are flying from the back of the trucks, piling high on the dusty ground.

Our road home takes us through the town of Kitale. We stop at a petrol station – queues of cars line up, now that the pumps are running again. But we are not here for petrol. We are here to meet three children – their father is a colleague of mine. They came north to spend the Christmas holidays in their family’s home area.

Quite some holiday it turned out to be. Their warm embraces and childish delight at seeing their father are a happy end to a draining day.