President Ruto criticised for misleading Kenyans on El Niño

Kisii senator Richard Onyonka has criticised President William Ruto for giving Kenyans misleading information on the El Niño rains.

This follows the president’s comments last month that the Meteorological Department had scaled down its El Niño alert to short rains, only for the department to come out two weeks later asking Kenyans to brace for El Niño.

In his address on October 22, Ruto said, "You see the department has now said there will be no El-Nino, we will only have significant rains, which is even better for us to get to our farms and produce more.”

The weatherman had warned that El Niño will hit the country from mid-October to December.

But on Friday, November 10, Met. Department director David Gikungu, speaking after being summoned by Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua to address the current state of rains in the country, regretted the miscommunication by the government allaying fears of El Nino and consequently leading to deaths and destruction as Kenyans were caught off-guard.

Senator Onyonka on Tuesday said political leaders should leave weather advisories to the Meteorological Department instead of giving contradicting information.

“Sometimes science can be misinterpreted. I think as political leaders, we should just leave the Meteorological Department alone. Let them make the mistakes and correct them. Can politicians accept that our job is to politick and allow the Meteorological Department to do its job?” the senator told Citizen TV’s Day Break program.

He blamed President Ruto for the confusion, saying previous heads of state never gave directives about the weather.

“I don’t remember President Kibabi, Uhuru or Moi or indeed President Kenyatta talking about the weather,” Onyonka said.

“It is just the way we have the Ministry of Health; the Director of Medical Services and the teams talk to the public, the way it was during COVID. That is how systems run.”