Intensify efforts to tackle climate change

Amulti-agency approach is needed in tackling the devastating effects of climate change.

On Saturday, Kenyans rose to devastating news that heavy rains in West Pokot County triggered landslides in three villages of Nyarkulian, Muino and Parua, killing at least 46 people, including women and seven children.

The rains, which started in the darkness of the night intensified and drifted homesteads in the hilltops and hillsides down the valleys- a devastating experience of its own kind on record the area.

Several homes were drenched and swept away by the gushing water flow filled with debris that were so great that within few hours, nothing stood but mud and debris flow that raced down the slopes.

Affected villagers narrated how their effort to save their relatives’ lives or retrieve their bodies were stymied by the impounding rains that pummeled the area. Amid the confusion, a military helicopter on a rescue mission hovered above the affected villages but the pilot pressed the return button to Narobi due to poor weather. The Muruny bridge along Lodwar-Kitale road was swept and debris piled on the demolished villages downstream.

Various lines of evidence within research reveal that temperatures in the East African region have been increasing steadily in recent years. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reveals that the five-year period from 2014-2018 was the world’s hottest ever. And true to that, Kenya’s mean annual temperature have been increasing every subsequent year since 2013, according to the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD) data collated in the Economic Survey.

As the country and the contiguous East African region continue to experience the adverse effect of climate change and variability, an understanding of the could be-drivers is key.

Since the East African region landmass is contiguous to the Indian Ocean, increased temperatures lead to a warmer Indian Ocean Dipole, which is a distinct climate system between the eastern and western (East African coastal) areas of the Ocean.

Once the Indian Ocean Dipole effect is ignited, there is a striking difference in the sea-surface temperature that leads to increased levels of evaporation that as a result lead to heavy yet unprecedented amount of rainfall in East African and beyond.

However, there are those who hold that the ongoing weather instability in Kenya and other parts of the continent is as a result of the interaction of the equatorial climate, the West African Monsoon (WAM) winds and El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) an argument that is inconsistent with those of the ideation that climate change is driven by an imbalance of earths’ energy forces, implying insignificant role of human activities, ENSO, the equatorial climate or WAM at play.

In a statement on Saturday, KMD warned Kenyans to be on the lookout of possible landslides that might strike those who reside on the slopes or in the low-lying areas in Cherangany, Aberdare and in the contiguous parts of Central, Western and Rift Valley with a certainty risk of up to 0.66 chance. The Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) is a statement issued on the same day, cautioned motorists plying the Ortum-Sebit road in Turkana County to consider using alternative roads in reaching their destinations.

The agency did not define what the alternative routes were leaving motorist to chance. Future advisories should articulate what the alternative routes are. Without such an articulation, road users are left to chance, which can expose to more risks -like jumping from the flying pan to direct fire.

There is no doubt that climate change is doing us a lot of menace. Without capacity building of potentially risky areas, mitigating effects can be quite a herculean task.

But knowing and acknowledging that climate change is uncertain can enable disaster preparedness strategies in terms of resource and equipment and save the country from kneejerk reactions.

Uncertainty of adverse weather events can trigger confusion not only among victims but among agencies that have the mandate to respond to climate emergencies. Taming of weather–induced disaster risk manifestations require harmonized communication and coordination of effort in responding to the tragedy.