Friday 1, August 2025 {HMC} United States President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, will travel to Gaza to inspect aid distribution as pressure mounts on Israel over its starvation policy in the war-torn Palestinian territory.

Witkoff will travel to Gaza on Friday with US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, to inspect aid distribution as condemnation of Israel grows over famine in Gaza and reports that more than 1,000 desperately hungry Palestinians have been killed since May at food distribution sites operated by the notorious US- and Israeli-backed GHF.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday that Witkoff would visit “distribution sites and secure a plan to deliver more food and meet with local Gazans to hear firsthand about this dire situation on the ground”.

“The special envoy and the ambassador will brief the president immediately after their visit to approve a final plan for food and aid distribution into the region,” Leavitt said.

The visit by the top US envoy comes a day after more than 50 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the territory and health officials reported the deaths of two more children from starvation, adding to the Gaza Health Ministry’s confirmed death toll of 154 people who have died from “famine and malnutrition” – including 89 children – in recent weeks.

Witkoff met with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after his arrival in the country on Thursday, the Israeli leader’s office said.

Earlier this week, President Trump contradicted Netanyahu’s insistence that reports of hunger in Gaza were untrue, with the US leader saying the enclave was experiencing “real starvation”.

The United Nations and independent experts had warned for months that starvation was taking hold in Gaza due to the Israeli military blockade on humanitarian relief, and this week, they said that “famine is now unfolding”.

Angered by Israel’s denial of aid and ongoing attacks on Gaza’s population, the United Kingdom, Canada and Portugal this week became the latest Western governments to announce plans to recognise a Palestinian state.

Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron said that France will recognise Palestine at the UN General Assembly in September, following Spain, Norway and Ireland’s lead.

Some 142 countries out of the 193 members of the UN currently recognise or plan to recognise a Palestinian state.

Following a meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday, Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said “the humanitarian disaster in Gaza is beyond imagination”.

“Here, the Israeli government must act quickly, safely and effectively to provide humanitarian and medical aid to prevent mass starvation from becoming a reality,” he said.

“I have the impression that this has been understood today.”

Once a vibrant centre of Palestinian life, much of Gaza has been pulverised by Israeli bombardments and more than 60,000 Palestinians killed, and almost 150,000 wounded, since October 2023, after the Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed an estimated 1,139 people.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

Friday 1, August 2025 {HMC} Families in central Somalia’s Dusamareb, who not long ago turned to farming after losing their pastoralist livelihoods to drought, have had their recent harvests blighted by insects they haven’t encountered before.

Ali Dahir Hashi said all the beans, tomatoes, kale, peppers, and watermelons he had planted on his three-hectare farm in Faragoy were destroyed by an insect infestation in April.

This situation has left Ali, 52, unable to support his family of 10, who are relying on relatives to share whatever food they can to help them out.

“We used to cook twice a day but now, we barely manage to get one meal. The situation is very, very bad for us, as the farms we’ve been relying on for so long have been devastated by insects. We have absolutely no other source of income, except from God. This pest has really had an impact on us,” Ali told Radio Ergo.

The farm was his only source of income and he doesn’t have funds to plant again. He had invested $700 in paying for seeds, pesticides, and labour, and needed to sell his produce to move ahead.

“Before the insects infested our farms, we had a good market for our harvested crops. The vegetables we transported sold very well, and we had no problems, but now it’s all gone,” he said, adding that they hadn’t experienced these insects before and didn’t know how to control them.

Ali began farming in 2022, when drought killed 70 of his goats in the rural area. He sold the remaining 30 goats for $900 to start his farm in Faragoy, 20 kilometres from Dusamareb, and used the rest of the money to support his family until their first successful harvest came in.

Now he says he feels hopeless about the farm and doesn’t know what to do. They have access to water from a well that was dug for local farmers by Norwegian Refugee council (NRC) four years ago – but with no cash reserves there is nothing to irrigate.

His four children in middle school missed the end-of-year exams in June when he defaulted on the $24 school fees he owed.

An estimated 150 farmers living in Faragoy, Abudwaq, and Bahdo in Dusamareb district have been affected by the invasion of insects that locals are calling dure that apparently came in from the north. Agricultural experts have not yet identified the insects.

Asli Hashi Abdi Asli took up farming in 2023, and was among dispossessed pastoralists given seeds and farming equipment in an alternative livelihoods project run by NRC. She had lost her 10 camels and 40 goats to drought.

However, she lost all the watermelons, bell peppers, chilli peppers, and tomatoes planted on her two-hectare farm to these unidentified pests just before they were going to be harvested.

She had spent her last reserve of $500 buying seeds and fencing, expecting to earn over $600 when she sold the produce in Dusamareb.

“Absolutely nothing was saved, there are just dried-up stems that are harvested for livestock, but they have no other benefit. We have experienced a decline. Now we have nothing new to plant,” she said.

She added that after the insects ate the first vegetables, they planted again, but in April everything was devoured.

She has been asking for loans and assistance from others. Her husband started odd day jobs but the most he makes is three dollars that can’t solve their food shortage with seven children to feed.

“Family life is hard; if we cook once, we don’t get the other two meals. We get that one meal occasionally, either when the head of the family gets some labour work, or when other kind people give us something, or when we take credit. That’s the kind of life we are in,” Asli said.

Her two children in fifth and sixth grades were expelled from middle school when she was unable to pay the monthly fee of $15.

According to Duran Abdi Nur, a farmer in Bahdo, the insects consume the leaves and fruits of plants and trees within a few days, making them wither from the roots. Since losing maize, millet, pumpkins, and papayas in March, he has been buying food on credit and owes $300 to shops in Bahdo.

“We need to get something to eat,” he said. “We were eating what we produced with our own hands, but not anymore. The whole family has become unemployed. The farm is typically cultivated for six months and harvested for the other six, and when it’s time for harvest we get a good amount of money, up to $2-3,000, but now there’s nothing much on the farms.”

Four of his children in middle school also missed the end-of-year exams in June as he couldn’t pay the fees.

Duran’s family began farming on their five-hectare plot in 2024, after migrating from the rural area of Bahdo, having lost 30 goats and two camels due to lack of pasture and water.

Friday 1, August 2025 {HMC} KENYA is positive it will be among the first African countries to be considered for tariff and bilateral trade talks with the US when attention shifts to the continent after Europe and Asia.

On July 27, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and US President Donald Trump agreed a deal on tariffs and trade which includes a new 15 per cent rate for most imports from the EU including cars, pharmaceuticals and apparel under a transatlantic partnership.

US and Chinese officials have also agreed to seek an extension of their 90-day tariff truce after talks in Stockholm aimed at defusing an escalating trade war between the world’s two biggest economies that threatens global growth.

President Trump however has the final say on whether to extend a trade truce that expires on August 12 or potentially let tariffs shoot back up to triple-digit figures.

Kenya’s Investment and Trade CS Lee Kinyanjui now says Kenya expects the US will consider the East African economic giant among the first economies to dialogue with the focus shifts to Africa, with Kenya seeking a strategic trade deal and removal of the 10 per cent tariff on her exports to the US.

The country is also among African states seeking an extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which lapses on September 30.

The AGOA Renewal and Improvement Act of 2024 which was introduced by Senators Chris Coons and James Risch sought to extend the bill for 16 years until 2041 and continue to boost Africa’s duty-free status as a means of “attracting private sector investment to help underwrite economic development.”

“They were dealing with Europe and a bit of Asian countries I think we have not quite come to Africa and when that time comes, I think Kenya will be among the first nations…the responsibility of extending AGOA is on their side, so our work is just to wait,” CS Kinyanjui said during a briefing on trade, in Nairobi, on Wednesday evening.

He said Kenya has responded to “all the issues” the US had raised in the stalled trade-talks which is intended to secure a bilateral trade deal between the two countries.

The US has been hard on Kenya on matters corruption and procurement, insiders familiar with the talks told the Star.

This is alongside trade facilitation and enforcement, environment, good regulatory practices, inclusivity and workers’ rights and protections.

The US has also been pushing for transparent and competitive procurement in Kenya’s government.

It also wants effective protection of intellectual property rights, favourable sanitary and phytosanitary measures among other interests.

This, as it seeks to secure business for US companies and a comprehensive market access for agricultural goods in Kenya, by reducing or eliminating tariffs.

The US Embassy in Nairobi during a recent interview with the Star confirmed that Washington is open to a trade deal with Kenya, even as it emerges that President Trump’s administration could throw out talks that were underway during former President Joe Biden’s term.

Kenya has been among the biggest beneficiaries of AGOA, which it has used to access the US market duty free since the year 2000.

The push to have a bilateral trade deal started during Tump and former Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta’s tenures, where talks commenced in July 2020, but a deal has never been struck mainly on changes in office bearers in the two countries over the years.

After the US elections in November 2020, President Joe Bidens’s administration took time to review part of the pact before initiating a fresh round of talks under what became the Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership (STIP).

Kenya then went into an election in August 2022, which saw President William Ruto ascend to power, with his administration taking over the negotiations as the two administrations agreed to seek the strategic partnership.

According to the US Embassy, “conversations are taking place” for a possible renewal of trade talks between the two countries, albeit under new guidelines.

“Those conversations are taking place but STIP might not be the acronym that it is called. It might be called something different, but I think there are intentions to have those discussions about lifting barriers to trade between the United States and Kenya,” Carla Benini, acting Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S Embassy’s, Nairobi, told the Star.

Meanwhile, Kenya is pushing for deeper ties with countries in Europe, Asia, Middle East, Latin America and Africa, under the African Continental Free Trade Area, even as the US remain a key market for her textile and apparel exports.

In 2024, Kenya exported goods worth Sh60.57 billion to the US market, representing a 19 per cent increase from the previous year.

by MARTIN MWITA