Dutch pledge money to Kenya fund

The Dutch embassy in Nairobi says the Netherlands has pledged more than one-and-a-half million dollars to a fund in aid of drought-striken Kenyans.

The United Nations coordinated relief fund aims to aid more than three-million Kenyans affected by a severe drought.

Earlier this year, the UN World Food Programme launched an appeal for eighty-eight million dollars to help feed Kenyans until the end of the year.

But correspondents say pledges have been slow in coming and the WFP has had to cut rations across Kenya by one-quarter. Kenya has not had any significant rainfall in the last two years.

The drought has resulted in crop failures and livestock losses and has drained water reservoirs, forcing the Kenyan authorities to ration power and water.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service