Massive crop failures resulting from erratic rains are causing severe food shortages in many parts of Kenya, says the UN World Food Programme (WFP).

It wants to raise $96.5m to distribute 165m tonnes of food over six months.

Last month, President Mwai Kibaki declared the country's food crisis a "national disaster".

'Bottlenecks'

He appealed for international aid saying that 60% of crops have failed in five out of the eight provinces.

Pictures of Kenya's drought

His appeal came after a joint report by the government, the UN and other aid agencies which said that people in the rural areas of Coast, Eastern, North Eastern and Rift Valley provinces had been hardest hit and would need food aid until January 2005.

"You only have to visit these parts of Kenya to see with your own eyes how in many cases the maize crop has wilted under the sun after the failure of the long rains in May this year - it is now essentially useless," said Tesema Negash, WFP's Kenya country director last week.

Priorities will include feeding half a million schoolchildren under a school feeding programme, the WFP said.

Distribution of relief in some areas has been hit by what government official have called bureaucratic bottlenecks.

Food shortages have been exacerbated by contaminated maize stocks in parts of Eastern Province.