NAIROBI: Kenyan government officials on Wednesday issued a testy ‘thanks, but no thanks’ to a New Zealand entrepreneur’s offer to help stem hunger with a powdered formula similar to one she developed for dogs.

The ensuing controversy has raised accusations of colonial-era racism and tragic misunderstanding in a nation facing the possibility of famine for 2.5 million of its citizens.

Christine Drummond, the dog-food company owner who made the offer, insisted that the freeze-dried meat powder she wants to send is not dog food, but a new, separately manufactured nutritional supplement that can be mixed with water and tastes ‘yummy’.

Nevertheless, on the streets of Nairobi, the offer has been condemned as ‘insulting’ and ‘racist’.

Some Kenyans said they would rather starve than eat a product derived from Drummond’s dog biscuits. If the powder is so delicious, they suggest, it should be fed to New Zealand children.

“Our children aren’t puppies, madam,” blared a headline in Kenya’s The Nation newspaper, where furious readers sent letters of protest.

For many, the offer rekindled resentment over colonial-era arrogance. “For us Kenyans, it’s a racial insult,” said Julius Kwea, 39, of Nairobi. “If it’s made for dogs, let it be for dogs.”

Njoki Agnes, a vegetable vendor in Nairobi and mother of four, said the offer was typical of “white people’s behaviour. Sending us food made for dogs is taking advantage of the famine situation in our country.”

Reached by telephone at her home in Canterbury, Drummond, 48, said she was only trying to help after a friend’s daughter told her about Kenya’s growing hunger problem. She blamed media in Kenya and New Zealand for reporting she was offering dog food.

“I have so much heart for Kenyans,” Drummond said. “I want to apologize to the government for what the media has created. I never intended to offend anyone.” She said her powder, consisting of dried beef, mutton, garlic, kelp and other products, is full of energy-boosting nutrients.

“I eat it myself,” she said. Drummond said she developed the supplement after creating a similar product for dogs, but insisted that the human formula was different and was manufactured in a separate facility.

Drummond said she has not sold the product publicly, but intends to. But Kenyan officials suggest that next time, Drummond should offer cash, or work through an aid organization.

“She’s trying to do something without really understanding the culture or thinking about the people she is trying to help,” government spokesman Alfred Mutua said. “And it creates a very negative stereotype about Africa and Africans.”

A freeze-dried meat powder would not likely be understood or consumed in remote, rural areas affected by the drought, government and aid officials said.

Besides, added Mutua, the region that Drummond hoped to assist — an island in Lake Victoria — is not among those severely affected by the drought. —Dawn/LAT-WP News Service