Why Kenya Meteorological Department is best placed to give updates on El Nino rains

Author Reference

Benard, L. (2015): Why Kenya Meteorological Department is best placed to give updates on El Nino rains. Intel Fire Group of Companies Blog. Nairobi, Kenya.

Why Kenya Meteorological Department is best placed to give updates on El Nino rains

That El Nino rains have been forecast around the world for year 2015 is not news but the sudden upsurge in number of experts in weather forecasting should be a cause for worry. Suddenly everyone is giving forecast on El Nino with majority of these nondescript organizations claiming final authority on their predictions. Some even go to an extent of justifying their false prediction by quoting the meteorological department as the source of their data. Due to this false reporting the department is deemed as giving false information yet this is not the fact. It should be noted that the MET department is the only one mandated to provide provision of meteorological and climatological services to agriculture, forestry, water resources management, civil aviation and the private sector including industry, commerce and public utilities for the better exploitation and utilization of natural resources for national development.

This department having the per-requisite and specialized equipment in rapid weather information collects and disseminates these for use nationally and internationally according to standards approved by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). For a humanitarian organization, a fire department, a disaster management response center and private and public players in the disaster management industry to claim that they predict El Nino on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis is total fallacy. Why would organizations other than the MET department take interest in forecasting? The answer to this question is simple, financial gain. Take for example the county governments where a local newspaper reported that there is scramble for El Nino cash. If this money was being distributed based on the MET forecast and it does not favour the county why not “cook” the El Nino projection literally. The implementers of mitigation measures of El Nino effects may be banked on but there are certain elements whose main focus is the financial benefits derived from the El Nino surging in the country.

The Way Forward

Interestingly the recent debates have been grounded on how much money each county should be given in order to implement mitigation measures and resilience during the El Nino season. This school of thought has completely neglected the predicting body which is the MET department. How much for example has been allocated the MET department to upgrade some of its equipment it has owned from generation to generation? The Kenya MET department should be given enough funding to allow their predictions to be as accurate as possible. Organizations purporting to undertake their own predictions in order to gain financial material mileage through should be warned of dire consequences. A law should be enacted in Kenya that ensures the local TV stations have a segment on weather report just like sports and financial news. This will bring back memories of good weather reporting by the like of Ngwata Francis et al. as opposed to current trends where the major local stations brings this broadcast as added-last-minute-dislike-rush and some doing away with the forecast reporting all together. Support the weatherman and you tongue will not get tied - so says the soothsayers.

The writer is a PhD Generalist in Public Safety Service Delivery