•The current rains are not part of the long rains season, expected to arrive next month.
•Livestock deaths due to the drought are reported to have surpassed 1.4 million, including due to long trekking distances and depleted pastures.
Image: MUSEMBI NZENGU
Numerous places across the country will receive light rains this week, helping crops that were planted late last year.
The Met department said central Kenya (including Nairobi, Embu, Nyeri and Meru) and areas around Lake Victoria and the Rift Valley highlands can all expect afternoon or evening showers until Friday.
The southeastern lowlands (Kitui, Makueni, Machakos, Kajiado and Taita Taveta counties) will also experience evening showers.
Some parts of the Coast might also rain, said Met director Stella Aura.
She said the rest of the country will be dry.
“Generally sunny and dry conditions are expected over most parts of the country,” Aura said in a five-day forecast.
The current rains are not part of the long rains season, expected to arrive next month.
Weather experts said there will be a dry spell between the current showers and the long rains in late March.
However, in Northern Kenya hunger crisis continues to grow due to the lack of adequate rains for three years now.
An estimated 2.8 million people are surviving largely on donated food, according to an assessment carried out by the government and humanitarian partners.
Livestock deaths due to the drought are reported to have surpassed 1.4 million, including due to long trekking distances and depleted pastures.
As pastoralists travel further from their usual zones, several counties—including Baringo, Isiolo, Laikipia, Lamu, Marsabit, Samburu, Tana River, Turkana and Wajir — have been affected by resource-based conflicts.
The March-May long rains are expected from March 15 along the Kenya-Tanzania border and in small parts around Lake Victoria.
However, most of the country will receive the rains beginning the last week of March and the first week of April.
The Nairobi-based IGAD’S Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (Icpac) on Friday said most of Kenya will likely to receive above-normal March-May rains, except the eastern strip along the Somalia border where rains will be normal.
Icpac director Guleid Artan said a wetter than normal season does not mean the region will immediately recover from the impacts of drought.
“It is very important to note that global climate models have low skill in predicting the MAM (March to May) season and stakeholders should prepare for the worst,” he said.
However, the expected wetter than average conditions will likely increase water availability over eastern Kenya and northern Somalia during the March to May 2022 season, Icpac said.
However, the Kenya meteorological department asked Kenyans to wait for a more downscaled forecast which shows the start and end date of rainfall for each county.
Met officers in Nairobi are currently meeting to analyse the Icpac update and formulate a three-month seasonal update.
The detailed, county-specific forecast will be released through the media on Tuesday.
(Edited by V. Graham)