Drought management in the drylands of Kenya: what have we learned?

The countries of the Horn of Africa face shared regional challenges to enhance proactive management of drought hazards. These include financing challenges to reduce reliance on emergency relief aid, as well as needs to enhance the use of information to trigger interventions and learn from implementation experiences. This chapter reflects on a decade of experience gained in building institutional capacity for drought management and preparedness in the Kenyan arid lands during 2008–18. It reviews lessons learned and their significance for the wider region. It concludes that to end drought emergencies by 2022 will require the use of participatory scientific methods and capacities to monitor, model, and manage the hydrological systems in the arid and semi-arid lands. This is needed urgently as growing economic water demand and extractions may already exceed predicted increases in precipitation and the costs of hydrological droughts are increasing.