British charities are mobilizing to help the 250,000 Kenyan people who became homeless after violence erupted following a disputed presidential election.
British medical charity Merlin is vaccinating children against measles, providing mosquito nets to help fight malaria and supplying clean water, while the British Red Cross launched an appeal to provide relief, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported on Sunday.
There are growing fears about the mounting humanitarian crisis in Kenya. Wubeshet Woldermariam from Merlin said "seven days into the crisis, food and clean water supplies are now running dangerously low, especially in and around Kisumu."
"People are being forced to drink unsafe water, risking diarrhoea, infection and severe dehydration. The longer the crisis continues, the greater the risk to people's health."
"If peace isn't restored within the next few days, disease and severe dehydration are very real threats."
Dr Afeworki Abraham, Merlin's country health director, said displaced people had flooded into Nyanza province in west Kenya from the north.
"They are staying anywhere they can find - police stations, churches, parks. It is hard to get food because the roads are blocked by gangs," he added.
An Oxfam spokeswoman said Kenya was well provided with its own agencies, but the organization was considering ways it could assist, such as potentially providing sanitation facilities and other necessities at camps where displaced people had gathered.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has urged Kenya's political leaders to move "urgently" towards talks to end the violence.
"I think it is very important that the two sides come together. We have been working night and day behind the scenes to see what we can do to bring the sides together," Brown told a BBC program, adding that he had spoken to Ghanaian President John Agyekum Kufuor, who is traveling to Kenya within the next few days to act as a mediator.
Brown said he believed there was "a chance of reconciliation."
The Foreign Office is still advising against all but essential travel to Kenya despite indications that trouble is easing.
British travel companies will meet on Monday to decide whether to continue canceling holidays to Kenya.
About 500 British holidaymakers returned home on Saturday and a similar amount are due back on Monday.
There are still about 2,000 Britons on safari and beach holidays in Kenya, away from the main trouble spots in urban areas.
Kenya is an increasingly popular tourist destination with about200,000 Britons visiting the country last year. Numbers peak in late January and February.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has said he is willing to form a government of national unity in an attempt to bring an end to the violence.
More than 350 people have been killed since the Dec. 27 elections.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband has called on the leaders of Kenya's political parties to share power.
Source:Xinhua
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