Recent drought causes country-wide food scarcity and famine, giving rise to an underlying crisis
(image credit: https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/drought-northern-kenya-pushes-millions-towards-hunger-2021-10-15/ )
Since early October, a climate crisis has been occuring in Kenya, causing starvation among the immense quantity of civilians. Less than a week ago, a severe drought hit Kenya. This drought specifically hit the northern region of Kenya, a region where diet and economy is reliant on livestock. This silent but deadly natural disaster has ambushed these animals, leaving them unfit to eat. As the supply of livestock has plummeted, the price of what little is left has skyrocketed. In Marsabit County, a county in northern Kenya, food prices have increased by 16%, according to the National Drought Management Authority. Millions of locals are unable to afford the price increase, driving northern Kenya into a widespread famine.
Kenya, particularly the northern region, has a history of experiencing droughts. In 1969, Kenya faced a harsh drought, one of the first to be documented and shared around the world. This article was written by Charles Mohr, in 1971, recounting the drought’s span of over 10 months. “almdst no rain has fallen here and, like much of Kenya, this area of the northern frontier is gripped in a terrible, intense drought. It has brought famine and economic ruin to tens of thousands of nomadic, pastoral tribesmen.” Marsabit County, the location of the most recent drought, is often a target for these droughts. An extreme drought in 2016 hit Kenya, affecting around 2.7 million locals. Marsabit County was one of the most severely affected counties, where thousands of children faced dire famine. Both droughts in 1969 and 2016 delineate very similar conditions to what Kenya faced then, compared to now. Many places around the world experience droughts, including Iran, Pakistan, China, and California. However, Kenya and other countries in Northern Africa are much more susceptible to droughts due to its geography. Northern Kenya is semi-arid and very flat, with little greenery, as opposed to the south, which is fertile and contains more foliage. Only about 20% of the country receives rainfall, and its rainy season is very weak. Kenya’s proneness to droughts is detrimental to the economy of the country in addition to its physical condition. It's a country that is heavily reliant on agriculture and livestock production. The physical conditions of this environment make agriculture extremely difficult. Inevitably, this leads to food scarcity, famine, and poverty. As climate change dries out water sources and destroys fertile land at an inordinate rate, an increased amount of droughts in Kenya have taken place. The more climate change alters the geography of this country, the more vulnerable these droughts make them, pushing Kenya farther into poverty and instability.
The environment plays a large role in human life, dictating where and how we live. Humans also affect the environment, often by putting a large strain on it. In this instance, Kenya's environment has a large effect on its inhabitants and their society. Due to these droughts, water supply has depleted, forcing herders to travel 40 kilometers(approximately 24 miles) in search of water for their livestock. During the most recent drought, most livestock were unable to survive through it, depleting Kenya’s food supply. Consequently, the price of food also increased to prices that many residents were unable to afford, inciting country-wide malnourishment of over 465,000 children. The largest instigation of climate change are humans and the raised levels of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere. Our actions have induced detrimental results, leading to an increase in Kenya’s droughts. Since 1985, temperatures have risen .34 degrees celsius each decade and rainfall has fallen to about 25-50% of its standard rate, according to a U.S. government data collection presented by author Baz Ratner of Reuters, in the article Drought in northern Kenya pushes millions towards hunger. These disasters have been harsh throughout history, such as the 2016 and 1969 drought explained above. These droughts, and others that have occurred in the past have all yielded a similar outcome; hunger. However, up until a few years ago, the frequency of these Kenyan droughts would have been unprecedented. Interviewed by Baz Ratner, Maurice Onyanago, the Regional Head for Disaster Risk management for charity Plan International, explains that "The past droughts were largely predictable. We had longer cycles of 5 to 10 years (between them). And this meant that the pasture and water bodies would regenerate very quickly." Recently, droughts are expected at least twice a year and increase in span. Ratner displays another U.S. government data collection stating that heat waves are likely to expand in length by 9 to 30 days. Although the intensity of droughts in Kenya has remained relatively constant throughout history, human impact on the environment has caused and will continue to cause a larger impact on the environment. Ultimately, as climate change progresses, frequency and length of droughts will increase, causing Kenya’s environment and economy to weaken to the point where the entire country is driven to irreversible poverty.
References-
(this is a digitized version of the one written in 1971, since NYT did not digitalize it’s articles until 1996)
"Drought in Kenya Results in Famine (Published 1971)." The New York Times - Breaking
News, US News, World News and Videos, 7 Apr. 1971,
mc=aud_dev&ad-
"Drought in Northern Kenya Pushes Millions Towards Hunger." Reuters, 15 Oct. 2021,
2021-10-15/.
"In Kenya, Severe Drought Threatens to Leave 4 Million Food Insecure." UNICEF,
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