Got my ‘game head’ on

18.30 On the train to Heathrow, and I’ve got my ‘game head’ on — I’m really looking forward to this trip to Kenya. The plan is to do the rounds in Nairobi with Save the Children Alliance colleagues (the ACE team and Save the Children Finland, Sweden, Canada and USA are all on this trip together) and then to go up country to Wajir on Wednesday to have a look at our scaled-up emergency nutrition response.

The food crisis in the Horn of Africa constitutes our major emergency priority at the moment. Kenya is close to our hearts in the emergency team. We were the ones who restarted Save the Children UK country operations there as an ‘out of area response’ in mid-2006 due to the severe drought, followed by a strategic decision to start protection work in Dadaab — the world’s largest refugee camp.

El Nino floods and election violence followed later and here we are again with a drought, this time widespread and severe. The cycle of Kenya emergencies continues.