Children across drought-hit parts of Kenya are facing a rising risk of starvation after deep cuts to United States aid under President Donald Trump disrupted life‑saving food and nutrition programs, aid agencies and health workers say.
Clinics that once treated severely malnourished children with specialized therapeutic food now report empty shelves, reduced staff, and growing queues of worried parents.
U.S. Aid Cuts Threaten Children in Kenya
Kenya has long depended on US support, mainly channeled through the now‑shuttered US Agency for International Development (USAID), to fund treatment for severe acute malnutrition and to support food assistance for vulnerable communities and refugee camps.
From 2020 to 2025, USAID pledged about $2.5 billion to Kenya, most of it for health programs, but this pipeline was abruptly interrupted when Trump ordered a pause and then major cuts to foreign assistance earlier this year, according to Reuters.
The World Food Programme (WFP) says a sharp drop in US and other donor funding forced it to slash food rations and suspend cash transfers for hundreds of thousands of refugees in Kenya, many of them children. In some camps, rations reportedly fell to about 40 percent of previous levels, leaving families struggling to cover even basic daily meals.
Health workers in arid counties such as Turkana report more children arriving at facilities with severe wasting, often after walking long distances because outreach projects that once screened and referred cases have been scaled back or shut down. Aid groups warn that when therapeutic foods and early detection are not available, minor illnesses can quickly become fatal for malnourished children.
Disruption of Supply Chains
UNICEF, the largest buyer and distributor of ready‑to‑use therapeutic food, confirms that most US funding for the peanut‑based paste was restored in March and that a later State Department grant is expected to cover supplies for nearly one million children in 13 countries, including Kenya, Market Screener reported. However, the agency and local health staff say it takes time for supply chains and community programmes to recover, and gaps in care remain in several Kenyan counties.
The US government insists it is still addressing global malnutrition and has announced additional support to UNICEF and food agencies, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio has rejected claims that people have died as a direct result of the cuts.
Humanitarian organizations argue that overall US foreign aid has more than halved in 2025 and warn that Kenyan children will remain at heightened risk of hunger and disease unless long‑term funding is restored and other donors step in, as per the BBC.
