The country is suffering from the worst drought recorded in the last 40 years,
More than 200 elephants died due to the drought from February to October this year in Kenya, an east African country that has been facing significantly reduced rainfall for years.
Kenya, East Africa’s economic engine and a major tourist destination thanks to its wildlife, is facing its worst drought in 40 years, while at least 4 million people out of a total population of more than 50 million are at risk of starvation. According to authorities, the drought is affecting 23 of the country’s 47 counties.
Four rainy seasons with reduced rainfall have produced the driest conditions since the early 1980s.
“THE drought causes great mortality in fauna, mainly in the herbivorous species (…) due to the depletion of food resources as well as the lack of water”, Tourism Minister Peninah Malonza pointed out in a press conference from Nairobi.
According to her, fourteen species are particularly affected by drought. From February to October 2022, 205 elephants died due to the lack of water in the country, as well as 512 wildebeest, 381 zebra, 12 giraffe and 51 buffalo.
Malonza pointed out that “more than 70 elephants died” during this period in the provinces of Amboseli, about 160 kilometers south of Nairobi, and Laikipia-Samburu, in northern Kenya.
Based on Ministry of Tourism data published in 2021, in Kenya there are more than 36,000 elephants.
To deal with the drought, the minister announced that the authorities will create “food stocks for the affected species”.
At the end of September, the non-governmental organization Save the Elephant announced the death of a well-known elephant in the protected park of Samburu.
Monsoon (“monsoon” in English), a female elephant of about 60 years old, mother of seven elephants, had escaped poachers five times. The NGO euthanized the elephant at the end of September, noting that her poor health was due to her age but had been “worsened by the drought”.
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