Nairobi floods: A governance crisis, not a climate accident , By Dr Dorcas Kalele
What you need to know:
- The Kenya Meteorological Department issues warnings and alerts, yet clogged drainage systems, poor urban planning, and weak enforcement of building codes ensure that these warnings translate into catastrophe rather than preparedness and response.
- Nairobi’s drainage systems, designed decades ago for a much smaller city, are now overwhelmed by rapid urbanisation and unregulated construction.
Kenya is once again experiencing rains that have caused widespread havoc in the capital city, Nairobi, as well as in other parts of the country. The images are painfully familiar: commuters and motorists stranded on submerged highways, families wading through knee-deep water in informal settlements, vehicles stalled in rising floods, and businesses forced to shut down. As the city and other regions drown, the pressing question is whether this is a case of unprecedented rainfall, or a case of human disaster and unpreparedness.
The raging floods are not merely a natural disaster; they demonstrate a governance failure and serve as a stark reminder that Kenya’s early warning systems are yet to evolve into sustainable mechanisms capable of providing timely alerts for building resilience against predictable climate risks and shocks.
It is becoming a trend: with almost every rainy season, the same cycle repeats. The Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD) issues warnings and alerts, yet clogged drainage systems, poor urban planning, and weak enforcement of building codes ensure that these warnings translate into catastrophe rather than preparedness and response. Nairobi’s drainage systems, designed decades ago for a much smaller city, are now overwhelmed by rapid urbanisation and unregulated construction. Informal settlements along riverbanks and low-lying areas bear the brunt, with families displaced and their properties destroyed. Also read: Kenyan floods: The making of a disaster
What is the status of the Early Warning for All Initiative?
On May 21, 2025, Kenya launched the “Early Warning for All” (EW4ALL) initiative, a groundbreaking programme introduced in 2022 by the United Nations with an ambitious goal: to ensure that everyone on Earth is protected by multi-hazard early warning systems against extreme weather or climate events, and can access disaster alerts by the end of 2027. The initiative, led by the Kenya Meteorological Department and partners, uses Artificial Intelligence, mobile technology, and data to provide timely, localised alerts for floods, droughts, and other disasters. However, the recent floods and their devastating impacts signal just how far we are from realising the EW4ALL vision. The critical question is whether the weekly alerts issued by KMD actually reach the most vulnerable,and when they do, whether the message is clear, timely, and accessible. All too often, warnings are too generic, arrive too late, or are simply inaccessible to communities that lack internet connectivity, mobile phones, or the ability to understand alerts due to language barriers.
To read the full article, please visit the following link: https://nation.africa/kenya/climate/nairobi-floods-a-governance-crisis-not-a-climate-accident-5386188