2008–2009 Kenya drought
Kenya, among the countries in East Africa, was affected by severe drought putting ten million people at risk of hunger and caused death of livestock in Kenyan arid and semi-arid areas.
Between 2008 and early 2010, Kenya, one of the countries of Eastern Africa, was affected by a severe drought, which put ten million people at risk of hunger and caused a large number of deaths to livestock in Kenyan Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs), constituting around 88% of the country.
The areas which experienced the worst effects were Northern Kenya, Somalia and Southern Ethiopia, most severely in Kajiado and Laikipia. These predominantly pastoral regions reported deaths of up to half of the livestock. Droughts in Kenya have become more frequent causing crop failures and devastation as three-quarters of the population are sustained by agriculture.
Background
Owing to the lack of annual rainfall, the arid and semi-arid lands of Kenya (ASALs) are very susceptible to drought and flooding. These lands are impacted by the increasing effects of climate change and the risk of desertification. Water scarcity leaves unimproved water supplies for the majority of the population, so these places tend to be marginalized, and have high rates of poverty.
Kenya experienced limited rainfall in 2008 from October to December, followed by a similar situation in 2009. The Kenyan Red Cross conducted assessment reports indicating the risk of starvation for millions of Kenyans, resulting in an appeal to the international donor community for food aid.
Kenya has been supported by a drought management system since 1980.
The public source identifies “2008–2009 Kenya drought” as kenya, among the countries in East Africa, was affected by severe drought putting ten million people at risk of hunger and caused death of livestock in Kenyan arid and semi-arid areas. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Kenya, drought and among.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q104902102. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2008, 2010, 2009 and 1980.
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This entry incorporates text from “2008–2009 Kenya drought” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.