Discourses on the climate crisis during donor-funded capacity-building and empowerment seminars, workshops and conferences always make abstract references to ‘resilience, adaption and mitigation’.
In the wake of elevated rains that have come with devastating flooding, these concepts are no longer academic. The danger is here and now.
Then there is another common phrase, ‘compensation for loss and damage’, from climate change discussions. Kenya richly deserves compensation for loss and damage following more than a month of extreme weather events.
The phrase – loss and damage – entered climate change parlance in Egypt, in 2022. Parties to the United Nations 27th Conference on Climate Change agreed international polluters of the ecosphere should compensate victims of their destructive industrial activities.
Reparations are viewed as a deterrent measure to achieve climate justice. The United States, China, the European Union and Japan are the lead emitters of greenhouse gases.
Polluting human activities ride on fossil fuels and gas. Climate scientists link these forms of energy to global heating that exacerbates natural disasters.
The intensity and frequency of storms, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes and droughts are increasing due to global warming, which causes climate change.
Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns, mainly caused by immoderate human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels.
The countries that burn fossil fuels the least, especially those in Africa, suffer the most devastating consequences of climate change. This then invites compensation for loss and damage resulting from extreme weather events.
Devastating floods across Kenya have created a humanitarian crisis of international proportions. By the latest count, the official death toll was 300; 115 camps for the displaced have been opened in 19 counties. Thirty-three of 47 counties are counting huge losses from devastating floods.
About 33,000 households have been displaced, affecting 165,500 people; 28,000 of them are struggling in climate refugee camps. Infrastructure in about 2,000 schools has been destroyed by floods.
Schools remain closed two weeks after they were supposed to open for the second term. Water levels in rivers, dams and lakes have hit a historic high, with more rises expected this week.
Official figures, however, may be conservative. Undocumented cases of deaths, injuries and displacements abound in backwater villagers. Lake Victoria has claimed huge swathes of riparian land in Kisumu and Homa Bay counties. Roads and bridges have been destroyed, cutting off villages, towns and counties.
Farms have been swept downstream, leaving in their wake gullies that degrade the environment. The long rains, meteorologists predict, will probably be longer, and the rains even heavier, compromising harvests in waterlogged areas.
Cases of water and vector-borne diseases, such as cholera, malaria, Rift Valley and dengue fevers are expected to surge. Overcrowded rescue centres are likely to experience huge challenges, including the spread of infectious diseases.
Frequent and longer power outages are expected to intensify.
Communities suffer the ultimate pain from damages and losses, which they cannot, on their own, control. They are suffering devastation from years of official neglect.
For the umpteenth time in 60 years, residents of flood- and landslide-prone areas are being advised to relocate to safer areas. But none of the official advisories is telling potential victims who owns the safe havens.
Resilience-building, adaption, mitigation, climate change financing and compensation for loss and damage must translate into actions that can solve the effects of climate change.
The time to engage local action gears — resolutely — was yesterday. The next best time to act — decisively — is now. Drowning Tana River Basin can house a relay of dams for water harvesting and storage. The single bullet will mitigate the effects of droughts and floods, while boosting irrigated agriculture. This is the logical answer to food insecurity. Not the perennial rush with mattresses and sanitary towels.
The dykes along the banks of the murderous River Nyando, and dams, can end the perennial pleas of ‘Serikali Saidia!' These huge infrastructural projects will require deliberate and priority investments of public funds.
Futuristic leadership can take Kenya out of this inherited emergency reaction mentality.