Ten counties on red alert as Kenya faces worst drought in 40 years

The Kenya Metrological Department is warning of a failed rain season in October-December 2022, which will in effect make the drought situation worse.

Already 4.35 million people are in dire need of food, a number that is likely to rise in the coming months.

With the drought situation taking the form of a vicious annual cycle, weather and drought experts are calling for an overhaul of the drought response mechanisms.

According to the Kenya Red Cross Emergency Preparedness and Response Manager Venant Ndinghila, the current emergency interventions are no longer economically sustainable.

The ongoing drought, the worst in 40 years, has affected 23 counties; out of which 10 are under the alarm drought phase.

“There’s very serious malnutrition for children under 5…at least 940,000 children under 5 years old are facing malnutrition,” said Venant.

According to Dr. Richard Muita of the Kenya Metrological Department, the country is facing a fifth failed rainy, and this is not a new phenomenon as the perennial history of drought in Kenya dates back from as early as 1928.

Dr. Mutia described the current dry spell as the worst in Kenya’s history in terms of longevity and severity.

“In 1928 we had a very severe drought in Kenya; then again 1933 to 1937…in the ‘50s again we had some major drought. Since 2016 at least we have had depressed rains, almost consecutively,” said Dr. Mutia.

Jackon Kikplagat, Head of Conservation, WWF- Kenya, stated: “According to the latest report from IPPC, this year has been one of the hottest years since time immemorial…and it is actually indicated that this trend is likely to continue making life more difficult.”

The unfortunate history of perennial drought has however done little in informing future interventions.

Concern has been raised over the lack of a proactive approach to addressing the drought situation in the country which created another cycle of the increased economic burden in drought mitigation programs, as the years go by.

The Kenya Red Cross for instance has been engaged in an integrated drought management program distributing food to over 275,000 people, cash transfers to about 116,560 people, animal off take program across several counties and water provisions among others.

But with the growing demand coupled with other factors such as the skyrocketing inflation rates, the emergency interventions are no longer economically sustainable.

“Initially, we were looking at a household on 5 people…to support them with quota rations for emergency for one month, we were budgeting around Ksh.5,500-Ksh.6000. But now we’re forced to budget at Ksh.9,700 per month so its very expensive,” stated Venant.

During the last financial year, the government disbursed Ksh.4 billion for the hunger safety program and Ksh.3.45 billion for emergency relief.

Another Ksh.950 million was spent on livestock off-take while Ksh.446 million was used on water response activities.

Experts in weather and drought management are calling for a change of strategy to end this cycle.

Kikplagat stated: “Adaptation is one way in which we can respond to climate change, for example having livestock breeds that can be able to survive in areas that are continuing to become dryer, instituting more management responses in dryland areas.”

Venant added: “We’re trying to provide seedlings and also have some little awareness with the farmers so that they can be able to plant these short maturing crops taking advantage of these rains.”

While appreciating the recent economic shocks occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, locust invasion, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and increasing global fuel prices, the Country Director John Kitui is challenging the national and county governments to make efforts to reduce the cost of living to enable Kenyan’s precariously living at the edge of misery not to fall into poverty and destitution.

Kenya is among the three countries in the Horn of Africa facing the worst drought in decades occasioned by the below average rainfall going into its fifth season.