•Earlier this week, Igad said more than 50 million people this year are expected to face high levels of acute food insecurity across seven Igad countries.
•The forecast was issued by the Nairobi-based Igad Climate Prediction & Applications Centre.
Image: FILE
Many parts of Kenya are likely to receive heavy rains next month, boosting the crops already on the farms, a new month-long forecast shows.
The entire western will be wetter than normal while drier than normal conditions are expected over the Coast and Northeastern.
This is not surprising because August is usually not a rainy month.
The forecast was issued by the Nairobi-based Igad Climate Prediction and Applications Centre.
“Much of Kenya, Somalia, southern to south-eastern Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania are generally dry during this month,” the forecast says.
The forecast shows Kenyans should expect warmer than normal conditions across the country.
The same conditions are expected in September as well.
The short rain season is expected to begin in October, but ICPAC and the Kenya Meteorological Department have not issued any forecast for the same.
Earlier this week, Igad said more than 50 million people this year are expected to face high levels of acute food insecurity across seven Igad countries.
The countries affected include Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.
This is according to the 2022 edition of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad) Regional Focus on Food Crises released on Friday.
The report showed that Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan are facing the largest food crises in the region.
“The number of people affected in 2022 is 50 million to 51 million people and this is a dramatic increase from 2021 when 42 million people suffered from high levels of acute food insecurity, the report read.
According to the National Drought Management Authority, four million Kenyans are facing starvation due to severe drought.
The National Drought Early Warning Bulletin for July shows that the drought situation continued to worsen in 20 ASAL counties.
“The number of counties in the alarm stage of drought has increased from five in May to eight in June. Counties in alarm drought phase are Mandera, Marsabit, Wajir, Laikipia, Tharaka Nithi, Turkana, Samburu and Isiolo," DMA said.
Twelve counties including Garissa, Kajiado, Kitui, Makueni, Meru, Taita Taveta, Tana River, Nyeri, Embu, Turkana, Kwale and Kilifi are in alert drought phase."
The authority attributed this to the poor performance of the 2021 short rains coupled with previous two failed consecutive seasons and early cessation of the 2022 long rains season.
Workneh Gebeyehu, Igad executive secretary, said the region has been hit like never before.
He said the combination of climate extremes, conflict, and macroeconomic challenges makes it almost impossible for resilient communities to sustain multiple shocks.
(Edited by Tabnacha O)