How the wind of climate change has blown through Nakuru this year
The aftermath after flooding water swept away families in Maai Mahiu.
For some of us in Nakuru, the aspect of climate change was a distant concept.
Our only interaction with the subject was watching the COP 28, United Nation Climate Change Conference, Africa Climate Summit and others on TV.
However, towards the end of last year and early this year, Nakuru experienced the diverse effects of climate change first hand.
Data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service and the Japan Meteorological Agency recorded January of 2024 as the warmest month ever recorded.
For the better part of January, the weather was unbearable with the scorching sun shining ever so brightly all the while temperatures being at an all-time high, with most people anticipating that the March rainfall would come as a form of reprieve.
In the first week of March, as most expected, it started raining and even farmers who had anticipated the coming of these rains started preparing their land for the rainy season.
But instead of the rain gradually increasing over time, it kept reducing and farmers watched helplessly as their seedlings wilted and eventually died.
Fast forward a month later and the rains once again made a comeback.
But as the saying goes too much of something is dangerous. The continuous heavy rainfall indeed brought with it adverse effects from displacing people from their homes, destruction of property, flooding farmlands and of course the unfortunate happening at Maai Mahiu that left Nakuru and the country at large in shock.
The past six months have seen Nakuru going through a rollercoaster from the climatic point of view and what is clear is that things are not as they used to be with regards to the predictable weather patterns.
All these pointing towards one major factor climate change.
With the world environment day upon us, perhaps it is time to actively participate in the climate change discourse and no longer be comfortable sitting on the side-lines.