{"id":52210,"date":"2022-09-07T07:54:37","date_gmt":"2022-09-07T07:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/?p=52210"},"modified":"2022-09-07T07:54:41","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T07:54:41","slug":"greenpeace-africa-calls-on-kenyas-president-elect-to-lower-food-prices-and-take-climate-action-seriously","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/press\/52210\/greenpeace-africa-calls-on-kenyas-president-elect-to-lower-food-prices-and-take-climate-action-seriously\/","title":{"rendered":"Greenpeace Africa Calls on Kenya\u2019s President-Elect to Lower Food Prices and Take Climate Action Seriously"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button aligncenter is-style-cta\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link\" href=\"https:\/\/pages.greenpeaceafrica.org\/seed-is-sovereign\">SEED IS SOVEREIGN,DEFEND FARMERS RIGHTS!<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<p>Nairobi, 7 September, 2022 &#8211; Greenpeace Africa congratulates William Samoei Ruto of Kenya Kwanza coalition following his election as the 5th president of the Republic of Kenya. Ruto\u2019s presidency comes at a time when drought and famine, lower crop yields and soaring food prices are rife. President Ruto must act swiftly and lower food prices and enact farmer friendly policies and laws that support local farmers to produce enough food for Kenya\u2019s population.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cKenya\u2019s food system has for a long time been held ransom by capitalists and greedy corporations seeking to make huge profits from the importation of grains such as maize at the detrimental expense of Kenyans. During his campaigns and in the coalition\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/uda.ke\/downloads\/manifesto.pdf?_ga=2.146788471.297653246.1660731028-1531779498.1617870586\">manifesto<\/a>, President Ruto pledged that if elected he will raise the agricultural&nbsp; productivity of key value food chains such as maize and dairy. We urge Mr. President to take all the necessary measures to free our food system from corporate capture and exploitation by big business\u201d, said Greenpeace Africa\u2019s Campaigner, Claire Nasike.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cFor Kenyans, the climate crisis is not a distant threat \u2013 it is a daily reality that leaves communities faced with devastating consequences. From perennial droughts to floods, loss of livelihoods and access to water, to violent conflicts over dwindling resources. President Ruto must take serious climate action to protect Kenyans from the negative impacts of the climate crisis\u201d, continued Nasike.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cPresident Ruto\u2019s government has a duty to make sure that Kenya\u2019s people are food secure by providing an environment for agricultural activities to thrive by amending <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/press\/51419\/punitive-seed-laws-protect-big-corporations-over-kenyas-farmers\/\">punitive laws that prohibits farmers from sharing&nbsp; indigenous seeds<\/a>&nbsp; to produce food\u201d, added Nasike.<\/p>\n\n<p>Agriculture is a key sector in Kenya, employing around 70% of the rural population and 40% of the total population. However, the increase in the cost of food production has led to a decline in employment within the sector. Statistics show that between 2010 and 2020, employment in the agriculture sector declined from <a href=\"https:\/\/tradingeconomics.com\/kenya\/employment-in-agriculture-percent-of-total-employment-wb-data.html\">60.3% to 53.8% <\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Media Contacts:<\/strong><br>Greenpeace Africa Press Desk: <a href=\"mailto:pressdesk.africa@greenpeace.org\">pressdesk.africa@greenpeace.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Hellen Kahaso Dena,<\/strong> <br>Communications and Story Manager, <br>hdena@greenpeace.org, +254 717 104 144<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button aligncenter is-style-cta\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link\" href=\"https:\/\/pages.greenpeaceafrica.org\/seed-is-sovereign\">SEED IS SOVEREIGN,DEFEND FARMERS RIGHTS!<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Greenpeace Africa congratulates William Samoei Ruto of Kenya Kwanza coalition following his election as the 5th president of the Republic of Kenya. Ruto\u2019s presidency comes at a time when drought and famine, lower crop yields and soaring food prices are rife.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":52211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[37,40,64],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-52210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-changemycommunity","tag-food","tag-conservation","tag-kenya","p4-page-type-press"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52210"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52213,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52210\/revisions\/52213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52210"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=52210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}