While we all sit and listen to the reverberations of last week’s Kenya’s disputed elections we should give credit where it deserves.

No food has moved in Kenya since unrest broke out after elections last month which the opposition says were rigged but a convoy of food trucks, courtesy of UN left the Kenyan port of Mombasa, in a new effort to tackle the humanitarian crisis.

The trucks, carrying 666 tonnes of food and vegetable oil, were bound for Nairobi and Eldoret, where people displaced by the violence are gathered.

The violence, much of it blamed on ethnic tensions, has killed 350 people and shocked a nation previously seen as one of the most stable in Africa. The first group of 20 food trucks were carrying enough supplies to feed 35,000 people for a month.

We should feel sorry for the 250,000 people who have been made homeless by the violence many of whom have been sleeping in the open at public parks, police stations, or churches. They have few belongings and little or no money.
Since the convoy also offers hope to neighbouring countries, for which Mombasa is also a key port and distribution hub we should not forget that there is a looming health crisis in Kenya.

Kampala