US development agency USAID will provide Kenya with $255-million in emergency and development assistance to tackle drought, administrator Samantha Power said on Friday.

The Kenyan government says 4.1-million people in the East African nation are food insecure, up from 3.8-million in March this year.

Power told a news conference in Nairobi that the amount was in addition to $65-million that USAID had already provided this year.

She said the war in Ukraine was increasing suffering in Kenya and the rest of the region.

Margaret Kobia, a Kenyan minister responsible for public service, gender, senior citizens affairs and special programmes, said the government had so far spent 12.6-billion shillings ($106.28-million) to help people affected by drought but had a shortfall of 15-billion shillings.