•The heavy rains will continue until the end of May in most places, Met said.
•The current high temperatures are also expected to begin climbing down beginning this weekend.
Image: ICPAC
The long rains will reach many areas that are still dry from next week, the Met department has announced.
Stella Aura, the MET director, said the rains have already begun in western Kenya and will spread to southern, central Kenya and Rift Valley highlands next week.
Northern Kenya will remain dry until early April.
The current high temperatures are also expected to begin climbing down this weekend.
“The season is expected to experience a normal onset with fair distribution over the whole country except for the ASAL regions of Northwest, Northeast and the Coast which will experience poor rainfall distribution,” Aura said in a statement.
On Thursday, parts of central Kenya including Nairobi received light evening rains.
However, Met department said this was not necessarily part of the long rains.
“The onset of long rains is when you receive rains of more 20mm cumulatively, which continue for at least three consecutive days, with no break lasting more than five days,” Chris Kiptum, the Principal Meteorologist, Forecasting Services, told The Star.
Met said most parts of Kenya should expect enhanced rains, except in the northeastern region.
“March-April-May 2022, forecast issued in February indicated that enhanced rainfall is expected over the highlands west of the Rift Valley, the Lake Victoria basin, central and south Rift Valley," Aura said.
"Other are the north-west, the highlands east of the Rift Valley (including Nairobi) and the Southeastern lowlands ((Kajiado, Kitui, Makueni, Machakos, Taita Taveta, parts of Tana River)."
The heavy rains will continue until the end of May in most places, Met said.
However, this will not immediately end the drought-related food crisis in northern Kenya.
In Mandera, the drought has worsened to a point of residents sharing their little food with livestock.
Issack Hapicha, assistant director, Drought Contingency Planning and Response at the National Drought Management Authority said they have been experiencing drought since lat year and it's worsening.
He said the situation is so bad that people would rather share what they have with the animals than watch them die.
“When we were doing interventions in November, one man told us that goats and cattle are now coming home for lunch. They hang around so that they can also get a share,” Hapicha said.
He said in June, 2021, Mandera was in the alarm phase, however it is currently at the emergency phase.
“The government and donor response is minimal and the situation is getting out of hand," Hapicha said.
"Livestock are dying in large numbers but we have not reported any case of human death."
He says the animals are emaciated, have no milk and cannot fetch good prices.
So far, 19,778 goats, 16,765 cattle, 2,949 camels and 557 donkeys have died in Mandera.
(Edited by Tabnacha O)