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Hunger Crisis Grips Turkana: One-Third of Children Malnourished
1 Oct, 2025
Summary
- 70% of Turkana's 1 million population lack access to nutritious food
- 87,000 children under 5 and 36,000 pregnant/breastfeeding women need malnutrition treatment
- Climate change impacts like rising lake levels and locust invasions have devastated livelihoods
As of October 1st, 2025, a devastating hunger crisis grips the Turkana region of northwestern Kenya. Recent monitoring has found that some 70% of the region's one million population are not receiving enough nutritious food, with one-third of children currently coming up as acutely malnourished.
The crisis is driven by a complex web of factors, including aid cuts and the devastating impacts of climate change. Intensifying drought, rising water levels at Lake Turkana, and locust invasions have all severely impacted the livelihoods of Turkana's residents, who rely on fishing and pastoralism. Families now struggle to feed their children, with many reporting they can only afford one meager meal of plain maize per day.
The situation is dire, with 87,000 children under five and 36,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women requiring urgent treatment for acute malnutrition. Aid organizations like Save the Children have expressed shock and sadness at the scale of the crisis, with one official describing countless parents who are "lucky if they can feed their children one cup of plain maize a day."
As the crisis deepens, the future of Turkana's children hangs in the balance, with their physical development and long-term health threatened by the ravages of hunger and malnutrition.
