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Pakistan and Kenya

My Lords, perhaps I may make two points regarding Kenya. I do so from a position slightly further away than that of the noble Lord, Lord Avebury. Last night I spoke to my daughter, who has lived in Nairobi for 10 years. Two of her comments struck me quite forcibly and I wonder whether the Minister would care to remark on them. First, one problem with the distribution of food is that it is extremely patchy, but my daughter said that there has been absolutely no problem in the area in which she lives. One day they were short of fresh milk, which is not a great deprivation. She explained that the problem is that the road blocks that have been set up to prevent civil disorder have in turn prevented the distribution of food because the drivers and their employers are not prepared to send the trucks through. The other point on which I should also appreciate the Minister’s comments concerns the media. I have always been in favour of a free media to the maximum possible extent but, to use a slightly difficult word, they are by definition ghouls. The media, particularly television, like to go for the sort of pictures that make the best copy. I was just as horrified as anyone else, if not more so, by the appalling pictures that we saw on television, but they portrayed very much a minority in Kenya.