Attachments
In Numbers
1.1 million people assisted
4.3 million in cash-based transfers distributed
USD 148.3 million six months net funding requirements (MarchAugust 2025)
885 mt of food commodities distributed
Operational Updates
Food Security Situation
• The February Short Rains Assessment indicate 2 million Kenyans are facing acute food insecurity, more than doubling from July 2024 figures. Out of these, 265,900 people are experiencing "Emergency" levels (IPC phase 4) across Turkana, Mandera, Garissa, Wajir, and Marsabit arid and semi-arid (ASAL) counties. Below-normal rainfall was a key driver of food insecurity.
• Malnutrition remains a serious concern with over 800,200 children aged 6-59 months and 120,700 pregnant and breastfeeding women requiring supplementation. Regions like Samburu, all Turkana sub-counties, North Horr, Laisamis, Mandera, and Tiaty, remain in Critical IPC AMN Phase 4 levels, while Wajir and Garissa have worsened from Serious (IPC AMN Phase 3) to Critical. Key drivers include food insecurity, persistent disease burden, household food consumption gaps, and limited access to nutrition services in hard-to-reach areas due to resource constraints.
Differentiated Assistance
• The Department of Refugee Services is leading the rollout of the differentiated assistance in collaboration with WFP, UNHCR, partners, and the UNHCR-WFP Joint Programme Excellence and Targeting Hub. Consultations with donors, non-governmental organizations, interagency teams, and communities, have secured broad support for the approach, including in Dadaab and Kakuma camps, and Kalobeyei settlement.
• Communication with Category 1 households (the most vulnerable) began in February, followed by a multi-agency recourse process for those who felt wrongfully categorized.
Data for Category 4 households (self-reliant) is currently being gathered to help identify and accurately place them.
Meanwhile, Categories 2 and 3 (households with limited potential to meet basic needs and those that are partially selfreliant) are temporarily grouped but will be separated in the third quarter of 2025 once adequate data on livelihoods is gathered and analysed. Additionally, stakeholders are refining costed assistance packages and aligning them with the 4 household categories for coordinated implementation.
Support to crisis-affected people
• WFP provided food assistance to 695,444 refugees (50 percent women) in the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps and Kalobeyei settlement comprising in-kind distributions of cereals, pulses, and vegetable oil, and cash-based transfers (CBT). Additionally, WFP disbursed CBT assistance to 158,124 vulnerable Kenyans across seven counties (57 percent women).
WFP also distributed specialized nutritious foods to 60,454 pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls, and 80,736 children aged 6-59 months, for the supplementation of moderate acute malnutrition.
Expanding Social Protection, Economic Inclusion and ClimateFriendly School Meals with the Government of Kenya
• Following the October 2024 launch of the National School Meals Coalition and scale-up plan, the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with WFP and stakeholders, convened the Coalition’s meeting in January. This meeting established coordination structures and a 2025 action plan to support the scale-up. In Kenya, the Coalition serves as a coordination mechanism that mirrors the Global School Meals Coalition and will coordinate implementation of climate-friendly home-grown school meals programmes, clean cooking initiatives in schools, school health and nutrition services, and knowledge management, while advocating increased budgetary allocation and operationalizing school meals programme policies. WFP will continue supporting the Government's commitment to expand the National School Meals Programme to 10 million schoolchildren by 2030.
• Under WFP's leadership, UN agencies including FAO, ILO, and UNICEF validated the 2024 annual report of the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework Joint Programme on Social Protection with the Government and stakeholders in January. Through the Joint Programme, WFP’s technical assistance helped the Government register and enrol 500,000 more households into the Inua Jamii cash transfer programme, increasing coverage to 1.7 million households in 2024 aimed at addressing poverty, reducing vulnerability, and building resilient communities. With WFP's support, the Makueni County Cabinet also approved the Social Protection Bill in January and tabled it to the County Assembly for enactment. Once enacted, this legislation will enable the county Government to implement the Makueni County Empowerment Fund to enhance financial security and well-being for vulnerable Makueni County residents.
Food Systems and Climate Resilience
• In January, WFP launched the "Building Climate Resilience for Food Security in the Fragile Setting of the Horn of Africa," in Kenya. This initiative targets 18 Climate-resilient Food Systems Hubs across five ASAL counties: Wajir, Garissa, Isiolo, Makueni, and Samburu, to benefit over 180,000 people. The programme will enhance climate resilience of local food systems, support smallholder farmers, and improve livelihoods of agro-pastoral communities affected by climate shocks. WFP will promote climate-smart agricultural practices, provide access to climate risk insurance, and implement anticipatory actions to mitigate extreme weather impacts, strengthening community preparedness to future climate shocks.
• WFP remotely monitoring of 82 ecosystem restoration assets across nine counties using the Asset Impact Monitoring System (leveraging remote monitoring from space) confirmed that 80 percent of the water assets are visible and well-maintained.
Furthermore, in-depth analysis shows improvements in vegetation conditions in 18 out of 28 assets. These assets are essential to WFP’s resilience activities, which aim to diversify livelihoods for 350,000 beneficiaries, boost agricultural production for 48,000 smallholder farmers, and advance soil and water conservation efforts across ASAL counties. In January, 129,960 people were reached through capacity-strengthening in (65 percent women).