Audit: Relief food system under fire

A new audit has revealed the country’s multibillion-shilling relief food distribution system operates without a policy.

The state cannot measure the impact of the rations, and has no way to hear complaints from the hungry, leaving the effectiveness of vital drought response "unassured”.

Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has raised concerns about the opaque nature of the relief food operations and the billions spent annually to cushion vulnerable populations from drought and hunger.

“The effectiveness, transparency and accountability of relief food operations couldn’t be assured,” the report for the period to June 30, 2025, currently before Parliament, reads.

The report focuses on the State Department for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands and Regional Development – the agency tasked with coordinating government response to food emergencies across drought-prone regions.

Despite handling enormous humanitarian operations, the department has been operating without a formally approved policy to guide the distribution of relief food and non-food items, the audit found.

Gathungu says the gap has led to inconsistencies, weak documentation, disputed roles and inadequate oversight in programmes meant to save lives and livelihoods.

According to the audit, the Directorate for Special Programmes—now under the Public Service ministry—which oversees national relief food operations, lacks a published policy framework for end-to-end management of relief supplies.

Key areas remain undefined, including how beneficiaries are identified, who sits on distribution committees, how stock movements are recorded, and what triggers an emergency response.

“The absence of these standardised procedures has led to inconsistencies in county-level implementation, disputes over roles, weak documentation, and inadequate accountability for distributed relief items,” the auditor general notes.

For the auditor, from the moment food leaves Nairobi warehouses to the point it reaches a hungry family in Turkana or Mandera, there is no uniform government protocol to ensure it is done fairly, efficiently and traceably.

Perhaps more alarming is the finding that the state department has no structured system to monitor and evaluate whether its relief efforts actually work.

The audit reveals a total absence of documented Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), baseline targets, or tools to assess the reach, effectiveness, or timeliness of interventions.

Gathungu observed that as a result, the government cannot tell whether the food arrived on time, if it reached the most vulnerable, reduced hunger, or was enough.

“Consequently, relief assistance was distributed without measurable objectives or mechanisms to assess whether the interventions effectively addressed food insecurity, drought vulnerability or beneficiary needs,” the report reads.

The audit further criticises the department for failing to establish feedback mechanisms for beneficiaries.

There are no post-distribution surveys, complaint-handling systems, or community validation processes to gauge satisfaction or correct targeting errors.

“As a result, field operations were implemented with minimal accountability to beneficiaries and limited institutional learning for future interventions,” the auditor general states.

Lack of feedback means that communities facing recurrent droughts have no formal channel to report issues, such as missing rations, poor quality food, or corrupt officials, back to the ministry.

While the audit did not allege direct fraud in the relief programme, it underscored that without proper policies, monitoring, and accountability, the risk of waste, mismanagement and failed interventions is unacceptably high.

In essence, members of the public and donors funding these programmes are left in the dark about what their money achieves.

Gathungu wants an urgent overhaul of the relief food management system; the formulation of a comprehensive policy, a robust monitoring and evaluation framework, and functional feedback channels to beneficiaries.

Several other governance weaknesses have also been highlighted in the audit of the state department.

Other findings include non-compliance with affirmative action in hiring, lack of an approved staff establishment and poor asset management.

Gathungu says logbooks for 17 government vehicles could not be traced, and that office furniture and computers were not tagged.

On the affirmative action element, the audit established an uneven youth representation in the department’s workforce.

“Although staff recruitment was undertaken in line with Public Service Commission procedures, the overall staffing pattern reflects an ageing workforce with no deliberate framework to attract, develop and retain young professionals,” the auditor notes.

She says management was in breach of the law and human resource policies, which require fairness, inclusivity, and age diversity in public service recruitments.