Kenya is
not just battling the weather—it is confronting the consequences of its own
choices.
In a
matter of months, the country has lurched from drought to devastating floods, a
brutal ‘climate whiplash’ that has left more than 3.7 million people facing acute
hunger.
But to call this a natural disaster is to miss the point. What Kenya is
experiencing is a man-made crisis, years in the making.
The
warning signs have long been clear. Kenya’s slide to 103rd place in the Global
Hunger Index, with a “serious” hunger rating, is not an overnight failure. It
is the cumulative result of chronic underinvestment, policy inertia and a
dangerous dependence on imported food.
Even as the country spends roughly Sh500
billion annually importing staples, it allocates a paltry 3.2 per cent of its
budget to agriculture—far below its own commitments. This is
not just neglect; it is abdication.
Communities
in Mandera, Wajir and Kilifi, already battered by drought, are now watching
floods destroy what little they had left. In Baringo and Homa Bay,
irrigation schemes are submerged and topsoil washed away. The tragedy is not only
that crops are failing—but that the systems meant to protect them barely exist.
Kenya
does not lack rain. It lacks dams. It lacks storage. It lacks the foresight to
turn climate shocks into opportunity. Instead, up to 40 per cent of food rots
before it reaches the market, even in good seasons.
The truth
is stark: hunger in Kenya persists not because solutions are unknown, but
because they are not implemented. Passing laws like the Right to Food Act and
investing in climate-resilient agriculture are not radical demands—they are
basic obligations.
Until the
State treats food as a right, not a commodity, this cycle will continue. And the
cost will be counted not in policy papers, but in empty plates.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Before all masters, necessity is the one most listened to, and who teaches the best.” —French novelist Jules Verne, known as the ‘Father of Science Fiction’, died on March 24, 1905
