Kenyan farmers condemn food aid

Somali refugees: May not be being give their staple foods

Kenyan farmers have blamed food bought in by aid agencies for depressing prices, hitting agriculture incomes already depressed by a government liberalisation programme.

Farmers say oversupply is behind a slide in the price of many foodstuffs, with maize prices slumping two-thirds over the past year.

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) has been blamed over its policy of distributing maize to Somali refugees in Kenya.

Many of the 150,000 refugees, who are typically brought up on a diet based on wheat flour or rice, allegedly sell the maize on the local market so they can buy the type of food they want.

Allegations denied

The WFP denied it was contributing to the saturation of the maize market.

WFP maize is distributed in Kenya

"The amount of food that we distribute in comparison to the overall market to start with is very limited," a WFP spokeswoman told the BBC's World Business Report.

"Secondly, let me point out the 88,000 tonnes of maize that were distributed in Kenya were bought in Kenya.

"This year we are going to buy 20,000 tonnes of maize in Kenya."

Government 'powerless'

Farmers have also accused the government of failed to defend their industry, and of being too keen to embrace the free-market policies of the World Bank and IMF.

They claim local millers and some businessmen have taken advantage of the liberalised market to import cheaper food stuffs.

"Liberalisation is welcome but it doesn't mean we should play the liberalisation process by the rules and allow every Tom, Dick and Harry to come in with sub-standard goods," one farmer said.

"It is the responsibility of the government to act as a filter."

But the government has said that the competitive global market means it cannot do this, and told farmers that they should not expect subsidies.