Government spokesman Alfred Mutua said the waiver applied to food aid only but added that authorities were looking to expand it to include medical supplies and other humanitarian assistance.

"Relief food should not have duty charged on it because it is not coming for sale, it is coming to be distributed to people and that is what is essential," Mutua told reporters as he announced the move at a news conference in Nairobi.

Last week, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned that 11 million people in Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia are on the brink of starvation in the Horn of Africa due to the drought.

In Kenya alone, the current crisis, which President Mwai Kibaki has declared a "national disaster," has killed more than 40 people and aid agencies expect some 2.5 million others to need food aid to survive by the end of next month.

Hundreds of thousands of cows, goats and normally hardy camels have also perished from hunger and thirst, imposing further hardship on the livestock dependent pastoralist populations of the region.

British aid agency Oxfam said Thursday it was "seriously concerned" about the crisis in Kenya, particularly in the northeast where massive livestock deaths were heralding even more severe conditions.

"Our assessments show that in some of the worst-hit areas, such as Wajir district, 70 percent of cattle may already be dead," it said in a statement.

"Assistance to the country needs to be stepped up urgently," Oxfam said. "Some children have already died from malnutrition and the hardest months of the year are still to come."

Oxfam and other groups have stepped up work in Kenya where Kibaki has appealed for 150 million dollars in emergency aid, ordered the purchase of all available maise for relief efforts and instructed the military to assist in the distribution of food and water.

However, media reports said unscupulous businessmen and local officials were selling assistance intended to be distributed to the most needy in some places.

Mutua said those found to be doing this would be dealt with severely.

"Let them know that this government will not be gentle on individuals who are going to sell or divert food when Kenyans are suffering," he said.

Earlier Thursday, the Nairobi-based UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said rampant deforestation was compounding the damage and misery caused by the drought and urged immediate steps to reverse the situation.

"Drought is no stranger to the people of East Africa," said UNEP chief Klaus Toepfer. "What has dramatically changed in recent decades is the ability of nature to supply essential services like water and moisture during hard times.

"This is because so much of natures water and rain-supplying services have been damaged, destroyed or cleared," he said in a statement. "Measures must be taken now to save lives and livelihoods. But we must also look to the future.

"Therefore it is vital that we not only maintain and conserve forests, wetlands, lakes and the like, but that we invest in their restoration and expansion."

Kenyan Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathai, who won the award for her Green Belt Movement that has planted some 30 million trees, on Monday blamed the drought on deforestation and called for measures to reverse the damage.

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