Where is the rain – Ruto questions El Niño prediction

President William Ruto has cast doubt on the weatherman’s prediction that El Niño will be experienced in the country. 

Speaking at the Agriculture and Food Security Summit on Thursday, October 8, Ruto wondered why the rain has not fallen in the country, yet it is almost mid-October.

He argued that farmers across the country prepared their farms in anticipation of the rains, yet the predicted El Niño rains are nowhere to be seen.

“We are waiting for El Niño, because we don’t know when it will rain. They told us it would come in August, then said it would come in September; now we are on October 8, yet we are still waiting,” Ruto said.

The President called for a dynamic shift in the agricultural sector, which would rely on predictable water supply for cultivation. He proposed irrigation as the most efficient method to make agriculture more predictable and reliable.

“We are building 50 mega dams, 200 mid-range dams and 1,000 small dams so that we transition agriculture from one that relies on rainfall to a predictable one that relies on irrigation because the current one is all about guesswork.

“We must move to agricultural practice where we can control the output of our cultivation. There is no other way other than irrigation,” he stated.

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Ruto explained that while rainfall has helped with food production over the years, it has left the country with a food deficit because of inadequate production.

He assured that when the 50 mega dams are complete, the country will be guaranteed to have 2.5million acres under food crop cultivation.

The President revealed that the National Infrastructure Fund (NIF) will fund the construction of dams. He intimated that the fund is currently worth Ksh320 billion, of which  Ksh200 billion is from the sale of Safaricom shares.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Health and the county governments continue to step up measures in preparation of the El Niño rainfall.

MOH warned Kenyans of water-borne diseases that may occur due to consuming contaminated water. The Interior Ministry has mapped out flooding and landslide hotspots across the country, and set up rescue and rapid response centres.

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