An elderly Kenyan woman walks to a food distribution centre in Burmayo, Kenya. Littered with carcasses and criss-crossed by older nomads hunting for water, the remote plains of northern Kenya are undergoing a drought that has killed at least a dozen people and hundreds of livestock. 

Residents of Mandera district -- which borders Somalia and Ethiopia and was already one of Kenya's poorest and most arid areas -- say the drought is the worst there for years. 

Living in grass-thatched shacks and trekking miles each day to hunt for water, they say the central government has done little to help since the drought began to bite three months ago. 

Ubah Karie, a mother of five children, watched helplessly as her three-year old son succumbed to starvation. 

"My son starved to death the day before yesterday," she told Reuters in El-wak, 200 km (125 miles) south of Mandera town. "All our 100 livestock perished in the drought, we are desperate." 

At least 10 people have died, but many more deaths are going unreported in the remote region, Mandera district medical officer Boniface Musila told reporters on a trip organised by a local legislator to draw attention to the crisis. 
"There are many more who have died in the wilderness," he said at Mandera district hospital, where dozens of mothers sat with their severely malnourished children waiting to be fed. 

Residents and other officials interviewed by Reuters confirmed 12 deaths: four people in El-wak, four in Mandera, two in Lafi, one in Kotulo, and one in Otha. 
With a population of about 350,000 people, many of Mandera's pastoralist people are far from medical services. 

"It's an unprecedented drought in the history of this district," local legislator Billow Kerrow said. "People dying of starvation is no longer news here." 
"Schools are likely to shut down completely, because parents can no longer afford to educate their children." 

He said "dozens" had died and there was further "impending disaster" if hunger-ravished nomads did not receive food aid. 

Mandera district commissioner Waweru Kimani agreed. 
"The situation is not bad, it's very, very bad. We wish to appeal for anybody who can assist to come onboard." 

Action Against Hunger, a New York-based organisation funded by Britain and UNICEF finds it hard to feed hundreds of severely malnourished children who keep trickling in their only feeding centre in Mandera. 

"Our hands are full," said Glen Hughson, head of the group in Mandera. "We need the international community to bring more assistance."