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Captain Juma from Murungaru, Kenya, Climate Witness
© WWF
I am Juma Njunge Macharia from Murungaru, a village in an area called Kinangop, 100km West of Nairobi, Kenya. I am 81 years old and have lived here since independence in 1963. I am married with nine children.
I am a farmer and an herbal medicine man. I have been in this trade for a long time, already during the war for independence. My neighbours usually come to see me for treatment. I treat them with herbs, shrubs and trees which I grow my in my yard. I also grow wheat, maize, beans, sweet potatoes and potatoes, and I keep some cows and sheep for milk and meat.
I used to be a captain in the Mau Mau movement, which was fighting for independence. Since Kenya declared independence in 1963, I have seen many changes to the vegetation in this area. These changes have occurred partly because of logging of indigenous trees in the forests and partly because many people in this area started planting eucalyptus trees to drain the swampy areas.
Unpredictable rainfall patterns
I have also witnessed remarkable changes in the climate in the last few decades. When I was young the rainy season in the Kinangop area was known to start in mid-April, but it has shifted to June when it used to end. The rainfall pattern has become unpredictable and unreliable. It has become more challenging to plan any agricultural activities due to this.
I have also noticed changes in temperature. Although daytime temperatures seem to have gone up, the number of cold nights appears to have increased as well, occurring in different months. Frost used to come in June and September and we could hardly grow any maize because the frost would destroy it. However, nowadays with good rainfall, we are able to grow our maize and realize a harvest as the effects of frost are not as severe.
The type of cold has changed as well. The month of July used to be cold and misty. I remember this quite clearly, because when I started my practice as a herbal doctor in the 1960s, I hardly saw patients that had contracted pneumonia. However, nowadays the cold is much drier. I have noticed this change because of the increasing number of children suffering from pneumonia who are coming to see me.
I am concerned about these changes in the weather as they are greatly enhancing other challenges which my community is facing. I understand that these climatic changes are caused by emissions from burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests. I hope that governments will agree to a way to stop this, and that the Kenyan government will help by stopping logging and re-growing the forests which have been cleared in the last decades.
The grass dries up
What is disturbing us most are changes to the weather. For example, rainfall patterns have changed drastically in the last decades. Here in the Kericho District we used to have rainfall throughout the year. I remember clearly that my family celebrated Christmas when it was raining heavily, but this has changed. Today, Christmas is usually dry.
Temperatures have increased in the last decades, even during the rainy seasons - a strange scenario in Kericho District indeed. Unlike 20 years ago, the dry season at present is hotter to the extent that all the grass dries up. This was not the case before, when grass would remain green even during the dry season. This means that there isn't enough fodder for my cows, leading to a drop in milk production and also income. The soils are also left bare during the dry season leading to erosion at the onset of the rains.
Edible insects we depended on have gone extinct
Kericho is a high altitude area and the cold weather used to ensure that mosquitoes could not survive here. However, one of the effects of the higher temperatures is the increased number of mosquitoes resulting in increased incidence of malaria in this district. This started in the 1980s. Now, people are even dying from malaria, something that was virtually unheard of 20-30 years ago.
Some of the edible insects that the people in my area depended on during scarcity of foods have also gone extinct. This means that my community has become more dependent on what we grow, and more vulnerable to decreasing rainfall and failing crops.
I have also noticed that, with the warmer weather, there are more pests affecting our crops. As a result, more pesticides are being used. The additional cost of pesticides means our farming business becomes less profitable. Moreover, these pesticides also pollute our environment.
All these changes in our local environment and climate have led to a situation in which food scarcity and poverty has become the order of each year. The situation needs urgent attention."
Scientific Background
Climate analyses show that overall temperatures in Kenya have risen by 1.3°C and while overall the precipitation has increased, more unpredictable rain (upwards of 20% more) is projected for the future making agriculture even more difficult.
It is known that climate variability and extreme weather events, such as high temperatures and intense rainfall events, are critical factors in initiating malaria epidemics especially in the highlands of western Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda and Madagascar.
The spread of malaria is seasonal and limited to the warm and rainy months; however, changing climate conditions, such as the persistence of warm and rainy days for more of the year can increase the incidence of malaria events. In addition to longer seasons that are suitable for malaria spread, temperatures have also been warming in formerly cooler, higher-elevation East African highlands. Subsequently, these areas are experiencing a spread of malaria in populations that had not previously been frequently exposed to the disease.
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