Climate Witness
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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.
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Captain Juma, WWF Climate Witness from Murungaru, Kenya, is packing his herbal medicines
© WWF |
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Captain Juma, practitioner in herbal medicine, from Murungaru, Kenya, is a WWF Climate Witness
© WWF |
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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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