USAID to give Kenya $255 mln for drought: administrator

NAIROBI, July 22 (Reuters) – U.S. development agency USAID will provide Kenya with $255 million in emergency and development assistance to tackle drought, administrator Samantha Power said on Friday.

The Kenyan government says 4.1 million people in the East African nation are food insecure, up from 3.8 million in March this year.

Power told a news conference in Nairobi that the amount was in addition to $65 million that USAID had already provided this year.

She said the war in Ukraine was increasing suffering in Kenya and the rest of the region.

Margaret Kobia, a Kenyan minister responsible for public service, gender, senior citizens affairs and special programmes, said the government had so far spent 12.6 billion shillings ($106.28 million) to help people affected by drought but had a shortfall of 15 billion shillings.

($1 = 118.5500 Kenyan shillings)

Reporting by Duncan Miriri; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Alexander Winning

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