"We have to do something as a church. We have appealed for support," the Rev. Gibson Gichuki, who heads a disaster response group at the Presbyterian Church of East Africa, told Ecumenical News International. "We do not want to be caught unawares if the drought persists."

Kenya's agriculture minister, Kipruto arap Kirwa, said at a media conference on April 29 that the rainy season from March to May had been below normal in most parts of the country and rain was poorly distributed.

Maize is Kenya's staple food and the minister said the government had this year stored sufficient supplies after facing a devastating famine last year. Kirwa said, however, there were only three million 90-kilogram bags of maize for relief and he appealed for food aid.

Francis Nzengu, the coordinator of the (Roman) Catholic Justice and Peace Commission for the Kitui diocese, told the Catholic Information Service for Africa: "We are facing a serious famine because the next rains are expected in November, meaning the next harvest comes in January."
 
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki last year declared famine a national disaster. Kirwa urged farmers to plant drought resistant crops and use their food stocks carefully.

The World Food Programme on April 26 had said 2 million people would need food assistance between May and August. "The debilitating impact of a prolonged dry spell, compounded by chronic poverty, means that in many regions thousands of families are too poor to have enough to eat," said Tesema Negash, WFP country director, in a statement.

The Anglican bishop of Kitale diocese, the Rev. Stephen Kewasis, on Monday urged the government to import food. "There is shortage. The rains came late," he said.

The Chairman of the Kenya Episcopal Conference, Bishop Cornelius Korir, however, urged the government to assess the food stock available before making any imports since that could affect local production. "We have to look at what people have [in terms of food stocks] before importing," said Korir.