According to the report, whose data was between 2019 and 2021, about 14.4 million Kenyans are undernourished.
According to the report, the increase in hunger in 2021 reflects exacerbated inequalities across and within countries due to an unequal pattern of economic recovery among nations and unrecovered income losses in those most affected by the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the daily cost and affordability of a healthy diet in Kenya have grown by Sh14 per person from 2017 to 2020.
As of 2020, about 43.6 million Kenyans could not afford a healthy diet yet the country’s population is about 53 million.
World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said about 11 million people die every year as a result of unhealthy diets.
He stated:
“Rising food prices mean this will only get worse. WHO supports countries’ efforts to improve food systems through taxing unhealthy foods and subsidising healthy options, protecting children from harmful marketing and ensuring clear nutrition labels.
“We must work together to achieve the 2030 global nutrition targets, to fight hunger and malnutrition and to ensure food is a source of health for all.”
According to David Beasley, the World Food Programme Executive Director, “the Ukraine war is driving food and fuel costs higher and even more people are going hungry. Some 345 million people face starvation. We must act now to save lives.”
He said the numbers would skyrocket in the coming months if no action is taken.
“The global price increases in food, fuel and fertiliser we are witnessing as a result of the crisis in Ukraine threaten to push countries into famine.
“The results will be destabilisation, starvation and mass migration on an unprecedented scale. We have to act today to avert this looming catastrophe”
