Food Rights

Join us on Twitter (see poster for details) using #ToxicBusiness as we call on the Government to immediately withdraw pesticides containing active ingredients that are toxic to human health and the environment, and that threaten food security and food safety in the country. 

The Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury presented the FY 2019/20 Budget Statement to the National Assembly on 13 June 2019 based on the Printed Estimates of Recurrent and Development Expenditure and the Program Based Budget (PBB), finalised earlier in May. Key insights from the budget, from a food and nutrition security perspective, are described in this article. In addition, you can download the full report and analysis of the budget for more detail.

The article raises key questions that are necessary for setting the context for a Right to Food framework in Kenya. What is food security? Is food security the same as the Right to Food? When a country speaks of having achieved the Right to Food, who is at the centre of its considerations? How is the political economy connected to the realisation of the Right to Food? In his analysis, Philip Kilonzo argues that too much emphasis is placed on agricultural commodities trading from Kenya into global markets and that too little, disjointed and problematic attention has been given to local food needs and livelihoods. This makes the Right to Food in Kenya at best, words in a constitution and at worst, almost impossible to achieve.

Food security is not a problem of production. It is a problem of access and distribution; and, the power imbalance between who is able to do just that — access and distribute. Nothing makes this clearer than waking up to the news of hunger-related deaths in Turkana. There is food in Kenya, so why are the people of Turkana facing starvation?

There are two stories being told about food security. One story says we are food secure and the other says we are not. The stories are being told – and written – by various people with different intentions. There are those who weave dreams, where fiction reigns and happy endings preside. Then there are those who tell it like it is.

In February, Kenya edged closer to commercial cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops after the National Biosafety Authority (NBA) approved open-air field trials of Bt-maize. If the new trials prove successful, it is likely that authorities will allow commercial cultivation. Consumers have been uninformed about their consumption of genetically engineered foods in the past and the regulating bodies that are supposed to protect our right to information fail to do so. We should ask ourselves, do we support or do we disagree with open-field testing and the move towards lifting the ban on producing genetically modified food in Kenya?  

Healthy soils are crucial to human nutrition and the fight against hunger. But worldwide 24 billion tons of fertile soil is lost annually. Barbara Unmüßig calls attention to the growing threat to one of Earth’s most important resources. The United Nations has declared 2015 to be the International Year of Soils, and April 19-23 marks this year’s Global Soil Week. Such events, though not exactly glamorous, do not receive nearly the amount of attention they deserve.

“Over 80 per cent of Kenya’s population of 40 million derives their livelihoods from agriculture and pastoralism. Four million small farm households produce three-quarters of the country’s food. The key actors are women, who account for 75 per cent of the labour force in small-scale agriculture, manage 40 per cent of small farms and play the major role in food preparation and storage. Yet Kenya’s farmers face massive challenges. Their landholdings are small, productivity is low and most have little access to inputs, financial services and markets to sell any surplus produce. Poverty and hunger remain deep and persistent. Around 48 per cent of Kenyans, especially subsistence farmers and pastoralists, live in poverty and over 40 per cent – around 16 million people - lack sufficient food”.

We are using the world’s soils as if they were inexhaustible, continually withdrawing from an account, but never paying in. At the start of the International Year of Soils 2015, the Soil Atlas - Facts and Figures about Earth, Land and Fields – demonstrate why the protection of soil is important to us all.

Women across all sectors of society are leading the way in efforts to build resilience and adapt to the impacts of climate change. To highlight on effective climate actions, on 22 September 2014, UN Women and the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, co-hosted the Leaders’ Forum on Women Leading the Way: Raising Ambition for Climate Action in New York City. In order to shed more light on the Forum, the Heinrich Böll Stiftung (HBS) interviewed Ms Cecilia Kibe, the Executive Director Kenya Climate Justice Women Champions (KCJWC), who participated in this Forum in her capacity.