Dogfood is for dogs says starving Kenya
Starving inhabitants of Nairobi (Kenya) feel too proud to eat dog food aid. Officials in drought-stricken Kenya reacted with horror and outrage on Tuesday to a plan by a New Zealand woman to send dog food to feed starving children threatened by famine in the East African nation.
Describing the idea as “absurd,” “insulting,” “offensive” and “immoral,” Kenyan officials vehemently rejected the donation and said they would put measures in place to prevent any similar assistance.
The would-be donor, Christine Drummond, has told the New Zealand press her mix is different from pet food, but made with the same ingredients, and she and her children eat it.
“It is immoral, it is unacceptable,” said Kenyan Special Programmes Minister John Munyes, who is coordinating the government’s response to the drought that has put up to four million Kenyans at risk of starvation.
“It is insulting us because we are poor,” she said. “We appreciate when people are willing to help us, but they should be sensitive about our culture,” said government spokesperson Alfred Mutua. “Telling us that you are giving us food for dogs in our culture is an insult of the highest order,” he said. “Maybe, she was trying to help, but I hope this offer is a result of naivety.”
The outcry began when Nairobi’s leading Daily Nation picked up a report about the offer of 6,000 packets of powdered dog food from The Press newspaper in Christchurch, New Zealand and splashed it across its front page. In the past month in just one of the Garrisa provincial hostpitals 40 people died from starvation, would their cultural pride have been the same, isn’t food… food?
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