•Some 4.35 million Kenyans are in dire need of food while over 3.5 million livestock has since died.
•The future is even bleak as the weatherman has warned that there is no reprieve in sight.
The African Union’s insurance arm is seeking partnerships across Kenya's public and private sectors in developing underwriting solutions for drought.
This comes as the worst drought in 40 years ravages various countries.
The African Risk Capacity (ARC) says the collaboration will help it to improve data collection and management, and come up with innovative products that make insurance more accessible and more available to the people that need it.
The new push comes at a time ARC is planning to increase its disaster cover in Kenya, to expand insurance coverage against drought to more Kenyans affected by drought in the country.
Kenya alongside its neighbours is facing one of the continent’s worst droughts in decades.
Some 4.35 million Kenyans are in dire need of food while over 3.5 million livestock has since died.
The future is even bleak as the weatherman has warned that there is no reprieve in sight.
This is because the rains expected in the coming months will be depressed.
“We've had a devastating drought in Eastern Africa: in Somalia, Ethiopia, northern Kenya and parts of Sudan,” ARC chief executive Lesley Ndlovu said in a statement on Thursday.
"These events have led to payouts by ARC Ltd. in 2022 and we’ve seen the positive impact on the ground in terms of making funding more available on a timely basis for African governments,"Ndlovu added.
But there is a need for insurance to be expanded and made more accessible to the countries to deal with the increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters, Ndlovu said.
According to the World Bank, the penetration of risk management solutions in agriculture in Africa remains low, despite the sector’s high vulnerability to the impacts of climate change and market inefficiencies.
But thanks to technological advancement, the advent of new challenges including climate change and the willingness of organisations to move the needle from the current one per cent penetration, things are changing.
One such innovation designed to increase smallholder farmers’ resilience to climate change is weather index-based insurance, which leverages technology to help farmers manage climate risks.
Calls have also been growing for an emergency response to support pastoralists and residents of Northern Kenya counties, where over four million people are staring at starvation.
The drought has also pushed hundreds of wildlife from their natural habitat into private farms searching for water and pasture.
The Wildlife Research Training Institute (WRTI), in a study, has noted that in the last two seasons (October 2021 to May 2022), the country has received rainfall below average, and more than 1,000 deaths have been recorded.
The most affected species are the wildebeests, common zebras, elephants, Grevy’s zebras, and buffalos with Amboseli, Tsavo, and Laikipia-Samburu ecosystems being hard hit.
In the statistics, 512 wildebeests, 381 common zebras, 205 elephants, 49 Grevy’s zebras, and 51 buffalos have so far died.
“The Amboseli and Laikipia-Samburu ecosystems are worst affected by the drought having recorded more than 70 elephants’ deaths... the continued worsening of the drought condition could affect more rhinos in overstocked rhino sanctuaries,” reads the report.
Most of the elephant mortality cases were recorded in Amboseli, Laikipia-Samburu, and Tsavo conservancies.
Several counties have already appealed to the national government and other development partners for help.
Ndlovu said that insurance works much better than traditional humanitarian assistance, which can take anywhere up to nine months to mobilise and to deliver to people.
“Our insurance programs typically pay out claims within 10 days of an event happening,” he said, " The question that we ask ourselves continuously is what it will take to scale up insurance coverage and make it mainstream all across Africa."
The National Drought Management Authority says the early cessation of the 2022 long rains has worsened the drought situation in 19 of the 23 arid and semi-arid counties, that were already bearing the brunt of the poor performance of three previous consecutive failed seasons.
This is the fourth consecutive poor rainfall season since the 2020 short rains.
Six counties namely Laikipia, Mandera, Marsabit, Wajir, Isiolo and Samburu are classified in the 'alarm' drought phase, while 13 are in the 'alert' drought phase.
The decline in livestock prices, increase in cereal prices and the general increase in prices of most consumer goods continue to undermine the purchasing power of households, exacerbating food insecurity.
The counties of Marsabit, Mandera and Wajir counties are in the 'emergency' phase, while Turkana, Isiolo, Garissa, Samburu, Tana River, Kitui, Baringo and Meru North are in the 'crisis food insecurity' phase.
Lamu, Kilifi, Kwale, Taita Taveta, Kajiado, Narok, Nyeri (Kieni), Embu (Mbeere) Tharaka Nithi (Tharaka) and Laikipia are classified in the 'stressed food insecurity' phase.
Kenya is among the Horn of Africa countries affected by the current severe drought in the region that has left millions across the country, Somalia and Ethiopia facing acute food insecurity and malnutrition.
The African Risk Capacity (ARC) Group is a specialized agency of the African Union established to help African governments improve their capacities to better plan, prepare, and respond to extreme weather events and natural disasters.
Through collaboration and innovative financing, the ARC Group enables countries to strengthen their disaster risk management systems and access rapid and predictable financing when disaster strikes.
This is to protect the food security and livelihoods of their vulnerable populations.