President Kibaki has called for emergency assistance

He made the comments as he appealed for international food aid to help feed the more than 3m Kenyans facing severe food shortages due to drought.

Some 156,000 tonnes of food is needed, estimated to cost $76m, to contain the situation for the next six months.

More than 60% of crops have failed in five out of the eight provinces, the president said.

Warning

"The current forecasts indicate that the country is likely to have a shortage of about four million bags during the coming harvest season," Mr Kibaki told journalists at State House in the capital, Nairobi.

I am therefore declaring the current drought situation... a national disaster President Mwai Kibaki

The rural areas of Coast, Eastern, North Eastern and Rift Valley provinces have been the hardest hit, and the president said they would need food aid until January 2005.

A joint report by the government, the UN and other aid agencies says that if rains fail between October and December this year, an extra million people could need food aid.

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

According to Health Minister Charity Ngilu, 80% of locally available maize stocks were affected.

Desperate residents in some areas are reported to be living off wild tubers because of the acute food shortages.