Climate Change in Kenya: The importance of trees
by Suzanne Rush | September 2009
Suzanne is a 3rd-year student of a Bachelor of International Development and Food Policy at University College Cork. As part of her degree, Suzanne has been undertaking a three-month internship in Kenya, where she is assisting Gorta's country representative.
Part 1 of 2
Before I left Ireland, climate change was an important issue. I knew that it was important – but as with the rights of workers in sweatshops in South-east Asia or the destruction of the Amazon, it was remote and of seemingly little impact. However, like a good citizen I turned off the lights and turned off the tap when washing my teeth as advised by the TV campaign.
When I arrived to Kenya, I learned one of the most important lessons of my life. Climate change is real and it's worse than I thought. Yes, it is caused by humans. No, it is not the natural warming of the earth.
So what caused this revelation?
I arrived to Kenya in May. It should have been cold and wet as the rainy season drew to a close. Instead, hot and dry weather greeted me - great for the tan, bad news for the crops. The rainy season had never fully arrived, with patchy and inconsistent rain experienced throughout most of the country.
So what - it didn't rain. In Ireland we would be delighted. What effect does it have in Kenya? Well of the thirty million bags of maize needed to feed Kenya's population, it is reckoned that only 22 million bags will be harvested - leaving an estimated 10 million hungry. And the government is unable to support them all.
You could be forgiven for thinking that this problem could be easily solved - just send in food aid. Unfortunately, this is not just a Kenyan phenomenon - this deficit in food is happening in Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, DRC...
The World Food Programme (WFP) can't feed all those currently in receipt of food aid - how can it cope with even more people facing hunger? Its budget has already been cut as the recession bites and governments turn their backs on these voiceless people.
Climate change doesn't just affect weather patterns, the effects ripple out into many areas. Lack of rain means lack of water for Kenya's hydro-electric dams, leading to power rationing. Garages can't pump your fuel, no computers, no internet. Many small businesses have collapsed.
Climate change means children cannot go back to school because the cash crops that would have paid their fees have not grown.
Climate change means mothers and grandmothers walk far from home to work or beg for food to feed their hungry families.
Climate change means that families have to pay for water and food from a dwindling supply of money.
Climate change means many pastoral communities, where they herd their cattle from one water hole and grazing place to another, can no longer find water and pasture; their cattle are dying before their eyes. Dead cattle line the roads to the livestock markets where emaciated cattle fetch poor prices well below their worth. The Maasai have wandered far from their traditional lands seeking pasture for their herds.
As I write, hopes are pinned on the next rainy season, due in September which weather forecasters predict will be good, if not longer and heavier than normal thanks to El Niño.
There is still debate however if this is a good or bad thing. Some say more rains means more crops. Others are arguing that with vegetation so dry and much of it gone as a consequence of the previous lack of rain, that the next rains will just wash all the soils away further silting up lakes.
Another problem is that many farmers, particularly those still displaced by the post-election violence of 2007, have very little resources. Earlier this year, they planted all their seed and spent what money they had to pay for fertilizers and other inputs for the planting season that never came.
What can they plant now? Where can they get those resources and what will they eat until this next crop is ready?
