Nairobi, Kenya ? 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 sooner starve than eat a product derived from Drummond’s Mighty Mix dog biscuits. If the powder is so delicious, they suggest, it should be fed to New Zealand children.