Climate Change in Kenya, Janet Kabue
This was one of the headlines in our local newspapers today "Grim days await Kenyans as long rains fail".
It was one of the newspaper articles that has in the recent past highlighted the delay of the March-April-May rain season. This rainfall highly impacts on the agricultural sector and hence food security in the country. The Meteorological department today stated that there will be no rains this season.
Climate change is the reason for the delay, this is connected to Cyclone Idai (a Cyclone that hit Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe in March 2019 killing more than 1,000 people, affecting over 3 million people, including thousands of people missing).The effects of the cyclone on those who survived it will be felt for many years to come as the three countries fight to recover from the devastation and damage.
In Kenya, in addition to temperatures rising to 41 °C in some places (our average is 28°C/82°F) we have to brace ourselves for scarcity of drinking water , drought and loss of livelihoods for the farmers. Already more than 40,000 tea farmers are on forced leave as drought conditions made it impossible to farm. It is a scary time as we face the possibility of running out of basic needs, especially food and water. The work to stop climate change however gives us hope.