The drought in Kenya, 2016–2017

The 2016–2017 drought in Kenya, declared a national emergency in February 2017, was primarily driven by sea surface temperature patterns, specifically La Niña. While attribution analysis found no strong climate change signal in rainfall trends, it concluded that temperatures during the drought were hotter than they would have been without human-induced climate change. The drought severely impacted 23 counties, leaving up to 4 million people in need of food aid by April 2017, though it was less extreme than the 2010–2011 event.

• The 2016–2017 drought was declared a national emergency by the Government of Kenya on 10 February 2017, affecting 23 arid and semi-arid counties.
• The drought was primarily influenced by sea surface temperature patterns, specifically La Niña, which created drier conditions in both the northwest and southeast regions.
• Attribution analysis indicates that human-induced climate change made the temperatures during the drought hotter than they otherwise would have been, exacerbating the drought's effects.
• There is no strong detectable signal of climate change in the rainfall trends for the studied areas, although small changes in the risk of poor rains cannot be excluded.
• The 2016–2017 event was an extreme occurrence but was less severe than the 2010–2011 drought; for example, the 2010–2011 drought is expected to occur less frequently than once every 50 years.
• The drought caused significant humanitarian distress, with food aid needs estimated to reach 4 million people by April 2017 and over 350,000 severely malnourished pregnant mothers and children.

APA

Uhe, P., Philip, S., Kew, S., Shah, K., Kimutai, J., Otto, F., Van Oldenborgh, G. J., Singh, R., Arrighi, J., & Cullen, H. (2017). The drought in Kenya, 2016–2017. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/The-drought-in-Kenya-2016-2017.pdf

Chicago

Uhe, Peter, Sjoukje Philip, Sarah Kew, Kasturi Shah, Joyce Kimutai, Friederike Otto, Geert Jan Van Oldenborgh, et al. The drought in Kenya, 2016–2017. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2017. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/The-drought-in-Kenya-2016-2017.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{uhe2017drought, author = {Uhe, Peter and Philip, Sjoukje and Kew, Sarah and Shah, Kasturi and Kimutai, Joyce and Otto, Friederike and Van Oldenborgh, Geert Jan and Singh, Roop and Arrighi, Julie and Cullen, Heidi}, title = {{The drought in Kenya, 2016–2017}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2017}, url = {https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/The-drought-in-Kenya-2016-2017.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }