East Africa should be prepared for more excessive rainfall in short rainy season, research reveals

In the long-term it is crucial to safeguard that any new infrastructure is tough to survive more repeated and extreme rains East Africa has lately had an exceptional sequence of unsuccessful rains. But some rainy seasons are producing the opposite: massive amounts of rainfall.

In the past few months of 2023, the rainy season known as the “short rains” was significantly wetter than usual. It brought serious flooding to Kenya, Somalia, and Tanzania. In Somalia, more than 2 million people were affected, with over 100 killed and 750,000 relocated from their residences. Tens of thousands of people in northern Kenya lost livestock, farmland, and homes.