Photo by Gavin Kelman on Unsplash Although they're used interchangeably, climate change and global warming are not synonymous. Global warming refers to the earth's rising surface temperature and is just one symptom of climate change. Climate change refers to a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns that lasts for an extended period of at least 30 years. The changing of climate throughout the years is normal; however, what is of concern is the man-made climate change which is caused by an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and other human activities. Although developed countries are responsible for man-made climate change, it is developing countries, countries like mine, that will suffer the most devastating consequences of it. This is hardly fair, and it has given rise to the term "environmental racism", a term which means 'environmental injustice that occurs in practice and in policy within a racialized context'. So, how has climate change affected Kenya? Here's how. 1. LET THERE BE HEATWAVES In the last 50-100 years, the temperature in most parts of Africa has risen by 0.5°C and it is projected to rise faster than the global average in the 21st century, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This trend is very visible in Kenya. Last year February, a pathologist confirmed that a second-year student at Kitui Campus of Kenyatta University was possibly the first Kenyan to die due to a heat wave that was sweeping across the country. This was the first time Kenya was suffering from an extreme heat wave. A day after the student's death, the temperature in Murang'a, a highlands town, hit 34°C, one point higher than the recorded temperature in Mombasa, a coastal town. Temperatures in Kenya have generally been hitting new highs, and we are experiencing hotter and hotter 'summers'. In February this year, the Kenya Meteorological Department warned of expected high daytime temperatures and Nairobi residents were especially advised to stay indoors between 12 noon and 3 pm. Furthermore, a study by US scientists revealed that living conditions for hundreds of millions of East Africans will become “unbearable” in the coming decades. This is because people living in already warm climates will endure increasingly intolerable conditions due to increased temperatures. It is estimated that more than 70 million Kenyans and Ugandans currently experience 20 to 25 days of dangerous heat per year. The situation could be far much worse by 2090 where it is estimated that we will face more than 125 days of dangerous heat per year affecting far more people. Kenyans have already started reporting cases of heat stress and heat exhaustion. Difficulty breathing, dizziness, and difficulty sleeping are just some of the symptoms observed. 2. AND THE DROUGHT SHALL COME FORTHKenya has been experiencing longer, more frequent, and more intense droughts as a result of the increasing temperatures. These droughts are unprecedented and our rain-fed agricultural system has not been able to adapt. There are high levels of food insecurity—by 2017, more than 2.6 million Kenyans were food insecure, and this number had risen to 3.4 million in 2018 with close to 500,000 children requiring medical treatment for acute malnutrition. Additionally, agriculture contributes to about a third of our economy, and so the economy took a hit (also, starving people can't work on account of the starving). Currently, there are people dying of hunger in Turkana County due to drought-linked famine. The drought has also made it harder for Kenyans to have an adequate supply of water, and county governments are currently struggling to meet the water needs of their residents. Nairobi, for example, primarily gets its water from Ndakaini Dam. The dam has a capacity of 70 million cubic metres, but demand stands at 777,000 cubic metres a day against a supply of 526,000 cubic metres a day. The dam fell to dangerously low levels in 2017 and Nairobi residents had to face water rationing for the whole of 2018. The rationing is expected to continue until 2026, according to the Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company. 3. FLOODS SHALL RAVAGE WHAT'S LEFT Another effect of climate change is massive floods. Kenya has also experienced this. We have had periods of floods following periods of drought. Rivers regularly burst their banks and overflow into neighbouring towns and residential areas. A lot of people have lost their homes and livelihoods from these floods. Last year's floods led to a renewed zeal to demolish buildings built at an inappropriate distance from riverbanks (reclaiming riparian land), leading to even more people losing their homes. Businesses were also destroyed as malls that were in the way of the natural flow of water, such as Nakumatt Ukay which went viral when footage of the flooded supermarket was captured, were demolished. There was a running joke that Nakumatt Ukay was a river in itself. Regardless of the jokes, the situation is serious. Even with unobstructed water flow and unclogged drains, extensive floods will still occur. The floods also add to food insecurity because crops cannot grow/do not grow properly in flooded areas.
4. THE FUCKING MOSQUITOES Mosquitoes thrive in African climates. This is why malaria is prevalent in Africa; and this is no different in Kenya. Kenya has been struggling to handle malaria for years because of antimalarial drug resistance and the resistance of mosquitoes to insecticides. Well, thanks to climate change, mosquitoes are surviving and proliferating even more. Due to climate change, mosquito-spread diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, and chikungunya may endanger millions of people in previously non-endemic places. According to a new study, half a billion people could be at risk from mosquito-transmitted diseases within 30 years as a result of climate change; and Canada and parts of Europe could be newly exposed to the threat. But while this is in the future for Canada and Europe, it is currently happening in Kenya. There are pockets of Kenyan areas where malaria is not common, e.g. Nairobi. A common saying is 'mbu za Nairobi hazina malaria' which translates to 'Nairobi mosquitoes do not carry malaria'. When a case of malaria is diagnosed in Nairobi, it is usually tied to a recent travel history outside of Nairobi to areas like the lake regions and the coastal region. However, this may soon change, and not just for Nairobi. This is not a future threat for us; it is happening now. 5. BYE-BYE NON-HUMANSTourism is a big part of Kenya's economy—travel and tourism made up close to 9% of Kenya's GDP in 2018, and the country was ranked the third-largest tourism economy in Sub-Saharan Africa. Tourism here is mostly marketed to foreigners, and several attractions are openly hostile and racist towards locals. Despite that, tourism is booming, and tourists come to see the big 5 as well as the annual wildebeest migration (one of the seven wonders of the modern world) and other animals. Taking the wildebeest migration as an example, every year, the wildebeest cross River Mara on their way from Maasai Mara in Kenya to Serengeti in Tanzania and back in a loop. The animals migrate following rains as they look for greener pastures. Due to the change in rainfall patterns as a result of climate change, the wildebeest migration has been affected. Additionally, since the rains now come in the form of floods/very heavy rains after a period of drought, the wildebeest are in greater danger of drowning as they cross the flooded waters of the Mara. But the wildebeest are just one example. Climate change has caused Kenya a loss of biodiversity as wild animals continue to die off as a result of drought. The drought has also added to human-wildlife conflict as humans and wildlife are increasingly finding themselves in each other's circles in the search for food and water. The loss of biodiversity also affects medicinal and food plants, especially traditional medicinal/food plants which Kenyan communities have relied upon (and still do) for generations. 6. AND MOSES RAISED HIS STAFF, AND THE SEA ROSEI remember when I was in primary school and the teacher told us that Mombasa was drowning. I was shocked as I didn't know before then that an entire city could drown. Due to rising sea levels, Mombasa's coastline has been eroding at 2.5-20cm per year. In 2009, it was reported that rising sea levels could swallow up Mombasa in just 20 years. Mombasa is on the coastal plain, only about 45 metres above sea level; and the scientists predicted that unless urgent mitigation measures were taken, a sea-level rise of just 0.3 metres would see 17 per cent of Mombasa (4,600 hectares) submerged. Coastal erosion is, therefore, a big threat to Mombasa and its people. Already, rising sea levels have forced people to abandon their homes. Additionally, cultural heritage sites such as Fort Jesus have already started being swallowed up by the ocean, and the city's infrastructure is also at risk. Outside of Kenya, this situation is also being observed in Kiribati where stretches of land have already been submerged into the ocean. It is feared that the island of Mombasa shares the same fate. Additionally, lakes in the Rift Valley region are regularly bursting their banks and flooding surrounding towns and villages. The situation has gotten so bad that the lakes are now merging with each other. For example, Lake Turkana merged with Lake Logipi, Lake Baringo merged with Lake 94, and Lake Naivasha merged with Lake Oloiden. Worryingly, Lake Baringo, a freshwater lake, and Lake Bogoria, a saltwater lake, are on the path to merge with each other. The two lakes are about 25km apart, but as they increase in size, they keep inching closer and closer together and there is a very real possibility of both lakes merging. This would be an ecological disaster because fish and other water creatures are very sensitive to changes in pH; e.g. freshwater fish can only survive in freshwater, and thus merging of the lakes would wipe out the freshwater fish. Furthermore, freshwater lakes provide water for domestic and agricultural use for the communities living around them. If water from the saltwater lake flowed into the freshwater lake, these communities would lose a vital water source. And all this is in addition to the regular flooding and rising water levels that causes loss of shelter to the people living in these areas. This report was originally published on the Tunza Eco-Generation platform by Yvonne W, Kenya's ambassador. RESOURCESInformation for this article was sourced from the following places: The IPCC Kenya Meteorological Society Kenya Wildlife Service Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company Archived Kenyan news paper articles reporting on climate change in Kenya, including The Daily Nation and Standard Media Did you enjoy this post? Leave a comment and click the button below to read more posts.
4 Comments
I love that you are using your voice and blog to draw attention to this issue, because I think so much of the attention is being given to idiots like Trump and those not quite getting the urgent threat posed especially in places like Kenya. I wish more people realised climate change is happening now!
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9/27/2019 12:16:44 am
Really great post on such an important topic! Loved the detail you gave and how you broke the article into segments.
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Yvonne W
3/3/2020 07:02:59 pm
Thank you! It's important to me that people know about what is happening here.
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