Jan. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Kenya needs 900,000 metric tons of corn to tackle a food emergency and is appealing for 32 billion shillings ($402 million) in aid, President Mwai Kibaki said.

While the east African nation has set aside 5 billion shillings for the crisis, it requires donor organizations to help it with the remainder, he told reporters today in the capital, Nairobi. “I am therefore appealing to all our friends and development partners to assist us in meeting the shortfall,” Kibaki said.

Kenya, sub-Saharan Africa’s fifth-largest corn producer, has sufficient corn to last until February, after poor rainfall and post-election violence in the first two months of last year cut plantings, Agriculture Minister William Ruto said Dec. 30.

More than 10 million Kenyans, about a quarter of the population, now need food aid, Kibaki said.

The U.S. has pledged credit guarantees, which will help the country import white corn, Michael Rannerberger, the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, said today in Nairobi.

The country also needs to review policies that may be “inadvertently contributing to food shortages,” he said. At the moment, farmers sell their grain to the government, who then sell it onto millers, Rannerberger said.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga defended a decision to introduce price controls on corn flour last month. “Such action is necessary so as not to risk the social stability” of Kenya, he said.

Kenyan corn stocks fell to 63,000 tons from 360,000 tons, while strategic grain reserves have also dropped sharply, Kibaki said earlier today. Corn is Kenya’s staple food.

The government will meet donors during the next two weeks in an effort to raise funds, Odinga said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Ombok in Nairobi at eombok@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 16, 2009 07:53 EST