President William Ruto inspects the completed works at the Galana-Kulalu Food Security Project in Kilifi and Tana River counties.[FILE/Standard] In a continent bedeviled with conflict in smaller, but key areas, with a humanitarian crisis the world has chosen to ignore, hunger and disease, more conflict and migration, remain Africa’s daily worries. Amid such chaos and disorganisation, witnessed in Sudan and DRC, and the instability in Southern Sudan, and other parts of the continent, hunger and disease visit, and linger longer. Corruption also thrives. Besides, there is a likelihood of unchecked and unwarranted public borrowing, and spending on things that do not necessarily benefit…
Author: By Lynet Otieno
22 November 2024, Berlin: Participants at a rally hold a banner with the slogan “Climate crisis does not wait for government crisis”. On the occasion of COP 29 in Baku, activists from Fridays for Future demonstrate in front of the Federal Foreign Office for the expansion and strengthening of climate protection in Germany and worldwide. [FILE/Standard] Something good happened in The Hague this week. It came with a momentum worth keeping in the fight for climate justice locally and beyond. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) made its pronouncement following a push by a group in the Pacific nation of Vanuatu for…
Paul Ronoh, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, launching a drone spraying initiative on December 3, 2024, in Tipis, Nakuru County, to combat the quelea bird invasion that has ravaged wheat farms. [[Kipsang Joseph/ Standard] I recently attended a two-day African religious leaders’ training that touched on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) risks and opportunities in pastoral work. The risks included the possibility of reduced church attendance and fellowship due to increasing online worship. Others were on privacy, disinformation and contortion of biblical teachings, with Africa left to consume Western technology without a voice in its creation or regulation. There…
When Activists demonstrated at the UN Climate Summit COP29. [AFP] The establishment of a fund two years ago to address climate-induced loss and damage was hailed as a major milestone in advancing the global response to the climate crisis by going beyond mitigation and adaptation. When, in 2022, the global climate dialogue at COP27 paved the way for the creation of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD), and countries pledged to contribute financially, vulnerable nations breathed a sigh of relief. Loss and damage occurs when mitigation and adaptation efforts fall short, and people begin to suffer irreversible…
This year countries were to renew their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) covering years 2031 to 2035, with specific plans to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHG). Kenya, for instance, submitted its updated NDCs in early 2025, complete with a target to reduce its GHG emissions by 35 per cent as at 2035. Part of the strategy will be to have 100 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources. Kenya hopes to achieve about 20 per cent of these using local resources. The 80 per cent will be the conditional support, in form of technology transfer, funds, and capacity building. The…
solar panels installed at the Tata Chemical Magadi factory, the company has embarked on an ambitious project transiting into green energy from fossil fuels in order to cut production cost and enhance sustainability. [Peterson Githaiga] The chorus is familiar: Africa suffers some of the worst climate disasters despite being the least contributor to the cause, an unsustainable rate at which the globe is warming courtesy of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Recent reports indicate that in every 10 of the world’s worst climate-hit countries, eight are in Africa. The biggest contributors often commit to raising funds towards climate action, but sometimes…
An officer from CropNut takes samples of Kale at Joseph Mwangi’s vegetable farm in Bahati Nakuru county on June 4,2025. [Kipsang Joseph,Standard] Land related stories hit headlines when disputes get deadly. And they are many. Even blood brothers kill for it. The recent killing of a family of nine in Siaya was due to a land dispute. Land goes beyond the soil. It is a source of livelihood and heritage. It is a family’s security on which you can sleep pretty even in a shanty. Squatters know what it means to live with possibility of an ambush, and not knowing…
Environment ,Climate Change and Forestry Cabinet secretary Debolrah Barasa with Rhino Ark CEO Christian Lambrechts and other senior government officials during the official launch of the South West Mau Forest fencing project on May 22, 2025 at Ndoinet , at the border of Nakuru and Bomet counties. [Kipsang Joseph,Standard] A recent visit to the village gave me hope, for once, that there may be better harvest this year. This part of Kisumu County has fertile soil, but usually messed up by erratic rain patterns. Small-scale farmers who would plant by the calendar now look up the sky to decide when to.…
Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) António Guterres makes his speech during the Africa climate summit 2023 Day Two at KICC on September 05, 2023. [Stafford Ondego. [Standard] There are days the government advises people to stay indoors as much as possible during the day to minimise effects of heatwaves. Heatwave is a period (even weeks) of extremely high temperatures, and is one of the effects of global warming. The year 2024, according to State of the Global Climate 2024, which was published in March 2025, was the hottest of the 175 recorded, according to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). The year had…
Members of the public view the damage caused flash floods in Mai Mahiu area after a dam in Old Kijabe burst killing 50 people. [Antony Gitonga] One year on, families in Mai Mahiu are still reeling from the pain of losing or missing loved ones in a flash flood. Tales of a mother never finding her two-year-old child to bury, or a boy who won’t make it back to school due to a persistent pain in the leg since the April 2024 dawn landslide, remain a stark reminder of how things can change in the twinkling of an eye. At least 60 people died in the…
CS for Environment, Dr Deborah Barasa, reaffirmed Kenya’s climate leadership and its future-focused climate action plan. May 1, 2025. [File] Congratulations to the government for submitting the second revised Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to the UNFCCC on time, in its commitment to tame the climate crisis. The climate journey outlined in the NDC meant for 2031 to 2035 indicates how Kenya will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 35 per cent, while increasing resilience among humans, economy and nature. The resilience aspect of this plan cannot be gainsaid, considering the battering that communities, the economy and ecosystem have endured in the face of climate change. The negative effects…
I “made it” to the North-Eastern part of Kenya last November to train teams on identifying impact stories for the projects they had engaged. I say “made it” because at some point, especially between Isiolo and Marsabit, it felt like driving hundreds of miles outside Kenya, sometimes with desert crosswinds destabilising our car. Besides, the brief I had from Faith to Action, with whom we had collaborated, seemed to have least prepared me for what lay ahead. The many CBOs and CSOs at the meeting were not only faith-based, but also tackled some of the most critical issues in the…
Half drought and half abundance, a tree stands in the landscape background. [iStockphoto] Every year, the world commemorates Earth Day, social media floods with hashtags and images of people planting trees, often just for the cameras, to remind us of our shared duty to protect the planet. Yet in Africa, the day often goes unnoticed, despite the continent bearing the brunt of the climate crisis. Though Earth Day began in the U.S. over 50 years ago, its message is more relevant to Africa now than ever. Earlier this week, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) renewed its call for urgent climate…
Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change, and Forestry Deborah Barasa during the launch of the Tupande tree crowing initiative at One A care fund grounds in Kakamega on April 9, 2025. [Benjamin Sakwa/ Standard] To the common man, climate change may mean just extreme weather, usually characterised by floods or drought. Even images of people struggling to explain, in Kiswahili, how a storm messed them up, with visible losses and damages on their property, have ended up in social media as mere entertainment, reducing the weight of the appeal for permanent solutions. Such conversations soon fade, except among victims, some who are…