One person is dying of hunger every single 30 seconds in East Africa.
It’s the worst drought since 1984 - which led to the famous Live Aid appeals.
Climate change has seen six consecutive years without a rainy season.
In the small village of Lomirok I met Loripu Kiru who lost his 14-year-old daughter Nateen and his 62-year-old brother Eglan to starvation.
Standing next to him his grieving friend lost his two wives and four other close relatives.
As we talked a dignified elderly lady approached me to say she is mourning the death of her seven-year-old grandson.
He died just last month on March 3 - the boy’s mother and father died because of the drought last year.
Richard Blewitt, executive director of international for the British Red Cross, said: “The Africa food crisis is a catastrophic, deadly emergency on a scale we haven’t seen in recent history.
“Right now, more than 140 million people are struggling without the food they need to survive.”
The United Nations has yet to formally declare an official famine.
But everyone on the ground knows it is an unprecedented situation and desperate action is needed soon to save lives soon.
These villagers’ stories are not unusual. Every single person has a similar one to tell.
Lomirok didn’t even exist three years ago. But it sprang up as people fled even worse areas and came to temporarily settle here - the only place they can call ‘home’.
In a nearby village a mum cradles her severely malnourished baby not knowing if he will have the strength to survive.
In the mud hut next door a 90-year-old woman has been left nearly blind with a disease caused by dirty water.
Every single person we spoke to said the same: “This is the worst drought ever.”
They pleaded for the world to stand up and take notice.
Loripo, 57, said softly: “I have lost six members of my family including my beloved daughter Nateen. She was just 14.”
He then slowly repeats her age: “Just 14 years old.”
He added: “She is buried far away but I cannot visit her grave as I have had to move many miles away just to survive.
“My brother Eglan also died - he was 62. They both died because they did not have enough to eat.
“This drought and famine has destroyed my family. How can this be happening in today’s world?”
Loripo invited us into his new “home”. It is made of twigs and sticks.
There he told us he used to be the head of a happy and healthy family but the drought had killed all of his 40 goats, 20 cows and six donkeys.
His friend Jackson Namulen, 54, lost his two wives, which is allowed under Kenya culture.
Echankan, 46 and Kobie, 49, both passed away within three months of each other.
He said: “They both died of hunger. They died of hunger in a country like Kenya.
“I had to bury them both in the ground.
“I feel very emotional about it. My life will never be the same again.”
Jackson also lost his livelihood. He said: “I had 200 goats, 24 head of cattle and two donkeys.
“Now I have none. I live here now in this new village and have made new friends but I only survive because of the Red Cross.
“They have saved my life.”
Ekibo Ndot, 67, wearing her favourite pink jumper with roses, lost her seven-year-old grandson Lorot just seven weeks ago on March 3rd.
“He died of starvation,” she said sadly.
“He was a lovely boy who had loved going to school but he was malnourished and just didn’t get enough to eat.
“We all really miss him.”
It’s a particularly tragic loss for Ekibo who lost her daughter and son-in-law as a result of the drought.
She died from starvation and he was killed as he tried to protect his family’s remaining livestock.
Cows and goats have become so valuable now armed gangs ambush shepherds and farmers shooting them to steal their animals.
The death of so many millions of animals has meant there just isn’t enough food for people to eat any more.
Each family used to have their own prized herds of cows and goats.
But with no pasture for the livestock to graze on almost all of them have died leading to a desperate lack of food which they would kill and sell.
“It’s been a terrible time for my own family,” said Ekibo.
“Before the drought we had 30 cows, now we have none - they all died.
“We used to have 200 goats, now we have two. They all died because there was not enough to eat.”
She watched as the other women in the village, which sits on the dusty El Baratheon plains, joined in a traditional tribal dance.
As they swayed they adapted the conventional words of the song by chanting: “If it wasn’t for the Red Cross we’d be dead like the cows and the goats.”
The dignity shown by the villagers in the midst of such grief is extraordinary.
Global warming has caused the catastrophic problems across the region.
The change in climate has had a severe effect on weather patterns leading to a lack of rain.
In Kenya the government has set up the National Drought Management Authority to try and help.
Joyce Kimutai, head meteorologist at the Kenya Meteorological Department, said: “Climate change caused the low rainfall in the region.
"Climate change has made the drought exceptional.”
Unfortunately death has become a completely normal part of life now Doris Lengala is ‘Nurse in Charge’ of the Nauneri Dispensary and treats 2,000 people.
She said: “There is severe malnourishment across the area. But there has been one big change.
“Men are now bringing in their wives for contraception “That just wouldn’t have happened five years ago.
“Their children are dying and they know they can’t have any more, they can’t afford to feed them.
“Some of the women who come in are young teenagers.
“I’ve had to deliver five babies myself because they couldn’t get to the clinic on time.
One of her patients is Nteiye Lepirr’s 14-month-old son Philippo who almost died last month.
He weighs 11 lbs. An average child in the UK would weigh 22 lbs.
“And that’s after he put on weight,” said Doris. “He weighed just eight lbs last month.”
He survived because of the intervention of Doris’s Red Cross clinic.
A special device which measures the width of the arm -shows red meaning he is severely malnourished.
Nyeiye, 25, has just found a job working in a tomato farm.
She earns 15p an hour for a 12 hour day toiling, shoeless, in the fields. That’s £1.80 a day.
She said: “I was very worried about my son’s survival but now he is improving.
“There’s a lack of water, lack of food, lack of everything “He is severely malnourished.
“But hopefully he will be ok now.”
Mum of two Sabina Lenteye, 25, collapsed with exhaustion. In recent months she has suffered two miscarriages.
She said: “I go to sleep hungry. My stomach is sore all the time “I often go three days without eating - my children get food from my kind neighbour.
“I don’t have the strength, I’m too weak to work.”
In the village of Lengesaka young mums patiently queue for medication. Next to them is the maternity and delivery ward.
It is outside and consists of three beds made of tree branches lashed together There are 2,690 people who live in Lengesaka.
More than 50 per cent of them are under 15. Only six per cent are over 60.
At the market cooking oil cost 71p for ½ litre two years ago.
It’s now double that.
One kilo of rice cost 59p it’s now 95p Sorobi Lesurmaat, 45, and her son one-year-old Paulo sat on the parched earth near her house.
She said: “I’m very worried about my son.
“He has been severely malnourished but I just hope he gets better.
“We have no money and no food. I’m very weak. As soon as the sun rises I head out to make charcoal.
“I have the baby on my back. It’s very hard work.
“I have only one meal of the day. I’m so hungry. But we have no meat, no milk, just rice and maize.
“This is terrible. It’s the worst I’ve ever seen.
“We used to have seven cows and 40 goats. They have all gone. The drought has killed them all.”
Elderly Rantilei doesn’t know her real age but said she is "around 90".
Four of her sons are dead through drought related disease.
She looks after her two-year-old great grandson Lteekua while family members fetch water.
The family used to have 100 goats and 50 cows. They are all dead.
The makeshift ‘fence’ around their huts is to try and keep the hyenas out - there’s little point for it now.
She said: “I’m hungry but we have nothing to eat or drink. Everywhere is dry.”
She has painful trachoma - an infection in the eye where the eyelashes turn in on the eyeball because there’s no water to wash.
Water she has used is so dirty bacteria and infection thrive. The family eke a living by collecting goat poo and selling it by the bag as manure to a nearby farmer.
