Kenya was ranked among the top ten countries with the highest number of people who faced severe to moderate starvation between 2021 and 2023.
According to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a specialised agency of the United Nations, released on Monday, December 9, Kenya ranked 8th globally with 39.4 million people experiencing uncertainty about their ability to obtain food.
The report shared by Visual Capitalist showed that in 2023, over 2.3 billion people globally were faced with moderate to severe food insecurity.
Nigeria topped the list with 161.4 million people who stared at starvation. Pakistan was the runner-up with 105.8 million people, DR Congo came third with 79.4 million people and Ethiopia closed fourth with 72.8 million.
Other countries with the most people reporting uncertainty in obtaining food were: Bangladesh with 52.3 million people, the Philippines with 51 million, and Brazil with 39.7 million effectively taking the fifth, sixth and seventh positions respectively.
Tanzania and Iran closed off the list at positions nine and ten. Kenya's neighbour, Uganda, was eleventh with 33.6 million people.
According to the report, the figure of the 2.3 billion people was a 45 per cent increase from 1.6 billion in 2015 who faced acute hunger.
Severe food insecurity occurs when individuals cannot access food for at least one day. Typically, people with severe food security have one meal a day.
On the other hand, moderate food insecurity occurs when individuals experience an uncertainty about their ability to obtain food and unwillingly compromise the quality or quantity of the food they consume.
It was noted that over 80 per cent of people in countries such as Afghanistan, South Sudan and Sierra Leone were food insecure between 2021 and 2023.
The poor state of food security in Kenya is attributed to extreme weather conditions which have caused prolonged drought and famine in recent years.
The situation in Kenya has been further complicated by three consecutive seasons of below-average rainfall, which have severely impacted agricultural production in the period leading to 2023.
