Attachments
OPERATIONAL STRATEGY REVISION
As the flooding continues and the situation for thousands of families worsens, more support is urgently needed to provide lifesaving and emergency relief to the most vulnerable. This revised Emergency Appeal increases the Federation-wide funding requirement from CHF 18 million to CHF 24 million to enable the Kenya Red Cross Society, with the support of the IFRC, to scale-up its emergency response and early recovery activities, as well as expand its operational areas and activities. The revised appeal increases the target population from 250,000 to 500,000 people affected by the floods since November 2023. To date, in addition to the DREF allocation mentioned above, the appeal has received CHF 1.27 million through the IFRC Secretariat appeal.
DESCRIPTION OF THE EVENT
Kenya was hit by El Niño enhanced heavy rains from October 2023 which continued into 2024. The country has now experienced a March to May 2024 rainy season which is well above the normal seasonal average for this time of year.
Communities in Kenya are once again facing heavy rains and devasting floods. The above-average rainfall has severely hit parts of the Lake Victoria Basin, Highlands West of the Rift Valley, Central, Northern and Southern Rift Valley, Highlands East of the Rift Valley (including Nairobi County), Northeastern, Southeastern Lowlands, and Northwestern regions. 42 of the country’s 47 counties have been affected by the floods.
On 3 May, the President of Kenya addressed2 the nation, and among other measures, specifically requested that humanitarian organisations mobilise adequate food and household supplies.
Prior to the October-to-December rains, the region experienced five consecutive seasons of belowaverage rainfall between 2020 and 2022 that led to a severe drought and insufficient access to food and water, limiting agricultural outputs and livelihood opportunities while also reducing populations’ ability to cope with future shocks.
Kenya Red Cross and partners in collaboration with the National and County Government leadership have been supporting scale up relief efforts to flood affected populations, through support with food and non-food items. Despite these efforts, there are still emergency response and early recovery gaps that continue to prevail, preventing many households from meeting their households' basic needs attributed to the adverse effects and large number of people at risk.
The needs range from access to food, availability of clean and safe water, basic medicines especially being a high season for disease outbreaks such as malaria due to presence of surface water and malnutrition among the vulnerable populations including sick people, children under-fives, expectant and lactating women, and the elderly due to food insecurity resulting from floods effects. When floods recede, stagnant pools of water provide breeding grounds for mosquitoes, leading to increased malaria transmission.
This Revised Operations Strategy is being launched with a Federation–wide funding requirement of CHF 24 million to allow the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) to expand and scale-up their lifesaving activities and emergency response to reflect the needs of the most recent March to May floods.