Brace for Heavy Rains, Kenyans Warned

The Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD) has warned of heavy rains and floods in the period starting October to December in some areas across the country.

According to the weatherman, the areas likely to be most affected include parts of Nairobi, Budalangi, Western, Nyanza, Central Kenya, Turkana, and Samburu will experience heavy flooding.

KMD Director Stella Aura divulged that most parts of the country will experience enhanced rainfall in the month of November when the rains shall be at the season’s peak.

She has called upon the Disaster Management Department to be on standby to mitigate any calamity that may arise.

“Following the forecasted enhanced rainfall over most parts of the country, various sectors are expected to experience both negative and positive impacts. Contingency measures should, therefore, be put in place to avoid some of the probable negative impacts,” she said.

The negative impacts stated by the Meteorological Department include Cholera and Malaria outbreaks, and farmers have also been alerted of expected losses on their farm produce as most of the roads would be wiped off by the rains thus the water will rip off crops.

Transport will also be a problem during the said period.

“Flash floods are likely to occur over several parts of the country especially during the peak month of November. This may lead to transport problems especially during rush hours and more so in areas where the roads become impassable when it rains,” the weatherman said.

At the same time, Aura said Kenyans should take advantage of the positive impact of the enhanced well-distributed rainfall that is expected over agricultural areas of the country which will be favorable for farming activities.

“Farmers are advised to take advantage of the good rains to maximize on crop production, pasture conditions in the pastoral areas are also expected to improve significantly so pastoralists are also advised to optimize in livestock production in order to benefit fully from the increased pastures,” said Aura.

Vegetation is also expected to increase significantly and people have been urged to plant more trees in order to increase forest cover.

Water levels in dams and other water catchment areas are also expected to rise which will, in turn, improve capacity for hydroelectric power generation.