By Mariam Dandachli | Staff Writer
Climate change has altered the weather patterns of many countries and has made natural disasters more severe and common. One of its extreme effects is seen in Africa which has seen more intense and frequent droughts over the past few years. Kenya, a country known for its distinctive wildlife, suffers immense wildlife loss due to the drought.
Situated on the coast of East Africa, Kenya is one of the world’s top wildlife destinations. Known for its huge diversity in mammals, it is home to “The Big Five”: lions, elephants, buffalos, rhinoceros, and leopards. In addition, it houses various species of birds and endangered species such as the grevy’s zebras and pangolins.
However, Kenya is also known for its numerous severe droughts that threaten both human life and wildlife. The most recent and ongoing drought is the worst one in decades that has hit Eastern Africa and has affected over 36.4 million people. According to a report done in October 2022 by the National Drought Management Authority, 4.35 million people need humanitarian help. Moreover, over 3 million people are suffering from food insecurity and lack of access to clean water.
Similarly, the 2-year drought has led to an extreme decrease in the amount of wildlife. Many Kenyan provinces such as Garissa and Mandera are covered in dust, dried-out trees, and carcasses of donkeys, camels, and giraffes that have died due to extreme thirst and starvation. It is reported that over 400 zebras and 200 elephants have died with hundreds more predicted to perish if the drought continues.
In 2021, Kenya was reported to have only 36,000 elephants left. With the acute drought, elephants are now 20 times more prone to die than by poaching, bearing in mind that poaching, the illegal hunting and killing of animals, has increased due to limited sources of income and decreased governmental control.
In addition, 30 hirola, a species of antelopes found exclusively in Kenya, have died during the drought. Reticulated giraffes, also found exclusively in Kenya, have rapidly decreased in number over the last few years; in 2018, the species was classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
This extreme drought that has resulted from four seasons of limited rainfall is one of the consequences of climate change as Macharia Kamau, Kenya’s former Permanent Representative to the United Nations and an expert on climate change, said. It is important for the media to showcase the dire consequences of drought and how much more damage it can cause to both humans, wildlife, and biodiversity. Over the past 10 years, our atmosphere has been increasingly and continually heating up. The Kenyan drought is but one of global warming’s repercussions and not its last.