Ethiopia is suffering a major drought with the crises in China and Burma securing donations ahead of this remote African country. East Africa has a long coastline however it is a dry, arid region and was long expected to be a stable, political base for international aid agencies to base their many personnel. No longer.

Kenya, in particular, has suffered serious bloody inter-tribal fighting following the disputed and disastrous results in the recent Presidential election. 300,000 Kenyans are internally displaced refugees with little access to clean drinking water. Clean drinking water is a human right. Hundreds of Kenyans have been killed over access to clean water and adequate food. Why do one million Kenyans live in shanty towns right beside highly developed Nairobi?

Ethiopia hit the headlines in 1984 when large scale famine and continued failed harvests coupled with deforestation caused the deaths of millions of hard pressed farmers and their families. Ethiopia is administered from drought free Addis Abba from where communications with the Ethiopian heartland is difficult and sometimes impossible. Aging Irish rocker Bob Geldof appealed to the world through his hastily arranged Live Aid concerts. Money flowed into Ethiopia where soil erosion was identified as the root cause of famine due to solifluction in the Ethiopian highlands.

Kenya and Ethiopia are watered by the ice forming on the Ruwenzori mountain peaks, also known as the Mountains of the Moon, which were discovered by the Irish explorer Richard Burton in 1879. These mountains unfailingly ice over every year and produce vast volumes of water for the East African Rift Valley with its many large lakes. The Mountains of the Moon never fail to ice over. In recent years the Mount Kilimanjiro, Tanzania ice cap has shrunk to one third of its expected size with a resultant decline in water supply.

Kenya suffers internal tribal violence. Land locked Ethiopia fought a 35 year war with Eritrea over a sea port access to the Red Sea. The UN mediated an end to this interminable conflict. Eritrea was part of Ethiopia. Ethiopia, Somalia and the United States joined forces in 2007 to destroy the Somalian Islamic Front and expel them from Somalian territory. Somalia is ungovernable and a rogue state. Ethiopia is the strongest state in the Horn of Africa and must deal with lawless Somalia.

Man is eternally optimistic, so, the future of East Africa depends on the provision of better living standards for the growing populations in this region. Agriculture has fed these people over many generations and will continue to do so. Hope springs eternal.

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