Consequences of Droughts and Floods in the Semi-Arid Lands of Kenya Are Two Peas in a Pod

The semi-arid lands of Kenya experience extreme weather events, including droughts and floods, which have significant impacts on inhabitant communities and their economy. Occurrences of the two are becoming more frequent and intense due to climate change. Therefore, understanding their impacts is of critical importance for effective mitigation and management. This paper shares findings based on a study carried out in the semi-arid Kyatune-Ikanga Ward area of Kitui County, Kenya, aimed to examine the dynamics of droughts and floods at household and community levels, and the measures in practice in management of consequences. Primary data was collected through a structured questionnaire administered on 45 randomly selected households and analyzed through descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that the consequences of the two weather events are largely similar, with an overall result of lowered resilience to vulnerability for people, livestock and the ecosystem in general. Both disrupt economic stability, destroy food security, and force displacement. Other than climate change, the problem is aggregated by population pressure, land use changes, and inadequate access to knowledge and resources on the weather. As a result, community empowerment in integrated range management is vouched for as the most viable option in controlling the negative penalties of floods and droughts, which need include embracement of early warning systems ideals, and livelihoods diversification. The findings were found to have potential to facilitate lobbying and advocating for action oriented policies to increase the resilience of households to extreme weather vagaries.

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