Waiguru: Kenyan women and children bear the brunt of the climate crisis
Kenyan women and children, she told delegates, were drowning in untreated sewage as sections of the country continue to yield to floods.
Governor Waiguru said the predicament was one of the reasons why she was happy with the launch of a Sh5 billion fund by the African Development Bank that has an incentive that will support women to carry out climate resilience projects in the country.
Last week, Kenyans living on riparian land and other flood-prone areas in Soweto, Embakasi East Constituency and Kibra in Kibra Constituency, asked the national and Nairobi county government to find them alternative permanent accommodation after Nairobi River burst its banks into their houses, ferrying all manner of filth.
While urging politicians and leaders to desist from disregarding information from early warning systems and authorities such as the Kenya Meteorological Department, Governor Waiguru told COP28 that Kenyan women and children are at the forefront of the climate crisis, which has destroyed their entire livelihoods and strained healthcare systems across counties at a time when the country is strained financially.
“We are not doing very well on resources as the needs far outweigh the resources that we have, but Kenya is one of those countries that has taken the initiative at the county level to set up a fund known as the county climate change fund, which has been passed by most of the county governments, which requires that out of all the development money that we receive from the exchequer, at least one to three per cent at a minimum goes to efforts that are related to climate change, either mitigation, capacity building, adaptation for communities but still, it’s not enough,” Governor Waiguru, who was in a panel discussion whose theme was Finance fit for Change: Co-designing multi-level mechanisms to unlock flows of climate finance to subnational level, said.
“Look at the damage that has been caused by the current floods in Kenya, which is a result of the climate crisis, and if you remember, previously we had drought, but just when we were recovering from the impacts of that
drought, now we have extreme weather again, which means that money will not be enough even to replace the livestock in our affected counties in Northern Kenya, for example,” she said, adding that in the case of Kirinyaga County, which she heads, they need resources to restore their lands and rivers that have been degraded due to flooding.
She also stressed the need to strengthen the capacity of subnational governments to plan, track and implement climate resilient projects in agriculture, infrastructure, water and environment through climate proofing of investments and cushioning communities from climate shocks and stressors.
Highlighting how Kenyan counties are navigating the climate crisis, governor Waiguru commented on the successful design of the Financing Locally-Led Climate Action, commonly known as the FLLOCA Programme.
“During the design stages of FLLOCA Programme, Kenya adopted an inter-agency approach involving key stakeholders, that is National Treasury and Planning, the Climate Change Directorate, the Council of Governors and County Governments to spearhead efforts to improve local climate action as per their respective mandates as prescribed in the National Climate Change Action Plan…this has improved the capacity of
subnational governments in tackling climate change through knowledge transfer and facilitation.”
According to the CS, piloting of innovative Decentralized-County Climate Change Funds took place between 2011-2018 by the Adaptation Consortium in the ASAL counties of Garissa, Isiolo, Kitui, Makueni, and Wajir, where the financial and governance structures for the county’s climate actions were designed, demonstrated, and strengthened, while ensuring that local communities were central in the decision making on resilience building and adaptation investments.
Governor Waiguru also urged the private sector to be fully brought into the climate conversation to elevate factors such as livestock insurance.
“Private sector will have a business bias to align with central government as opposed to smaller counties where they may not stand to leverage much comparatively. This has been the case even where mitigation functions in cross cutting sectors are devolved, and so we have increasingly advocated for a one government approach,” she told delegates at the global meet in Dubai.
“While livestock insurance can be a valuable tool in climate mitigation, it is important to address challenges such as affordability, accessibility, and the need for accurate climate data.
Additionally, comprehensive strategies that combine insurance with other climate adaptation and mitigation measures will be most effective in building resilient agricultural systems in the wake of climate change,” she added.