The rains are coming, and in Kenya, that forecast carries real weight. Meteorologists are warning that this year's El Niño could rank among the strongest ever recorded, bringing with it heavy rainfall and widespread flooding across the country. For many Kenyan communities, that is not an abstract climate statistic. It is a direct threat to life.
Flooding in Kenya has historically displaced families, destroyed crops, and cut off entire villages from roads, medical care, and food supplies. When the rains arrive with this kind of force, the consequences ripple through everything. Livelihoods built over years can disappear in a matter of days.
The fear captured in that phrase, "it can kill us," speaks to something forecasters' charts cannot fully show. This is a population that has lived through flood seasons before and knows exactly what strong ones look like. With predictions pointing to conditions even more severe than usual, the concern is not panic. It is experience.
Originally published by BBC Africa.