Leah Adionyi and her husband Francis Osoro have six children, and because their home is not on high ground, they are at further risk from climate change because their crops flood.
Read this story in The Nation with additional photography by KC Cheng.
Climate Change Has Upended Kenya’s Agricultural Economy
As the region faces unprecedented flooding, farmers are struggling to make ends meet.
Kenya has faced unprecedented flooding in recent years and farmers are struggling to make ends meet. Throughout the country, agriculture employs more than 75 percent of the workforce, but in Kitale, the “breadbasket of Kenya,” an even greater percentage of people rely on casual employment from the agricultural sector.
It used to be that December through February was the dry season, and rain would come in March as farmers would plant corn. But when rain cycles become unpredictable, casual work dries up as farmers don’t know when to plant or harvest. Large-scale farmers have lower yields and are cutting employees, driving more people into poverty.
Rose Nekesa walks to collect water from a local well in Kitale, Kenya. Because of flooding on their land, Rose and her husband can no longer plant corn, a staple crop that could feed their family. When too much rain comes, even their home floods. Many families’ latrines overflow and sicknesses spread. Cases of malaria are also increasing because mosquitos thrive in wet climates.
Francis Osoro works in his small plot of land in Kitale, Kenya. The weather problems have been devastating for their family—because of the floods, they are not able to grow enough food to consume, and have no excess to sell for income.
![Rose Nekesa's daughter Abigael plays with a toy made of string tied to a plastic bottle beside her family’s home in Kitale, Kenya. Her mother says, “For tonight, we have no plan [for what to eat] because I woke up in the morning planning to go for ca](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6100c77881cfd010595f07cd/1c1f7f62-76a5-4b1e-9c15-45ab08dbbcc0/ENW_5288.jpg)
Rose Nekesa's daughter Abigael plays with a toy made of string tied to a plastic bottle beside her family’s home in Kitale, Kenya. Her mother says, “For tonight, we have no plan [for what to eat] because I woke up in the morning planning to go for casual work but most of the farms have not started casual work … So, I have left everything to God. Even yesterday, we slept without eating.”
Eldoret, Kenya, a town in the Rift Valley region of western Kenya. With less crops produced in Kitale, the cost of living and the price of food in all of Kenya has increased. Neighboring countries depend on Kenya’s agricultural yield, making the lack of food an international crisis.
Metrine Mulongo feeds her cow a banana stalk in Kitale, Kenya. Her husband is a carpenter and has had less work because he works outside and it's been raining during the dry season.
Spinach growing on Elkana Wanyama and Rose Nekesa’s plot of land.
Elkana Wanyama's daughter Ruth knows her education comes at the cost of reduced income for her family. If she drops out of school to do casual work, she could help them buy food, but she knows that gaining skills will better equip her to support them.
Elkana Wanyama stands beside his home on a rainy day during what is usually the dry season in Kitale, Kenya. He says, “We can’t get casual work because of the delays of rain."
Metrine Mulongo's one-year-old grandson David sleeps. His mother Naomi says, "Despite the challenges I've passed through, when I see my son, I always tell myself that he is not an accident and I am strong for him.”
Metrine Mulongo's niece Naomi sits with her son David at her boarding school. Naomi is learning skills in tailoring and in permaculture which will help her family withstand the effects of climate change.
Bernadette Wanjala, an employee at a permaculture farm works in the field in Kitale, Kenya. Permaculture is one way to cope with the erratic weather changes.
Alice, a young woman living in Kitale, attends at a trade school where she is learning permaculture so she can support her son. Her mother passed away when she was young and her father doesn’t support her.
Farm manager Enoch Shamala walks in his permaculture farm in Kitale, Kenya. Permaculture is one strategy of mitigating the detrimental effects of climate change because of the farm’s design.
In Kenya, the majority of people in extreme poverty live in rural areas. The number of those living on less than $2.15 USD a day in rural regions is about 10.6 million, while 1.7 million people in extreme poverty live in urban areas.
Climate change poses a greater risk to those who already live in poverty so when weather patterns are disrupted, they are the first to suffer. One especially vulnerable population in Kenya are those living in flood zones. When the rainy season hits hard, their crops flood and they don’t have enough to eat, let alone enough to sell to make a profit. During the fall of 2023, Kenya’s rainy season came with about twice as much rain as is normal due to human-induced climate change. This resulted in severe flooding which causes children to drop out of school and families go hungry.
When floods do come, many families’ latrines overflow and sickness spreads through the neighborhood. Cases of malaria are also increasing because mosquitos thrive in wet climates and those who cannot afford a mosquito net, a necessity in rural Kenya, are placed at further risk.
Pastor Stephen Churu says, “That’s when you find children dying. And that’s common for now and is really happening … Now [people] are asking, why don’t they find another means of disposing whatever they’re disposing that will not cause global warming? That is their great prayer that something can be done about it.”
Climate change is also driving more people in Kenya into poverty. Churu says, “Because the same crops [that] are supposed to support famil[ies] are affected by global warming, they have nothing to sell and nothing to eat. They become more poor day by day.”