BARREN:Climate change impacting livestock wealth (XINHUA)

Kenya's weather forecasting department admits that the changes in weather have made it difficult to determine when rain would actually come.

"We have already been affected by floods and droughts resulting in destruction of infrastructure. The country's meager resources are therefore diverted to address impacts of climate change at the expense of resources (particularly finances) required to develop meteorological infrastructure, said Dr. Samwel Marigi of the Kenya Meteorological Department Headquarters, Nairobi.

Another problem seems to stem from the way African governments depend on the West to help them circumvent problems related to climate change. In her book Dead Aid, Zambian scholar Dr. Dambisa Moyo argues that Africa's poverty has been largely contributed to by financial aid. Of the over $50 trillion pumped into Africa's economy since the 1960s, there is little to show, she writes.

Meeting in Nairobi in September to discuss the drought situation, leaders from the Horn of Africa countries agreed to establish new methods of farming that are not rain dependent. But then in their Nairobi Plan, they added, "We call upon the International Community to support and honor their commitments to the Adaptation Fund as set out in the Kyoto Protocol  ...to facilitate developing countries to adapt to climate change." Ethiopia seeks $1.6 billion, Kenya $1.8 billion, and Djibouti $33 million in this latest call.

The Stockholm Environmental Institute estimates that the actual cost of climate change in Africa will be a loss of 3 percent of the continent's GDP per year before 2030.

In Kenya, the figure is $3 billion per year, according to the institute's paper, "The Economics of Climate Change in Kenya."

Kenya's Environment Minister John Michuki said that the 2009 climatic talks in Copenhagen ended with a non-binding Copenhagen Accord, which said that rich countries were supposed to financially help poorer nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Despite UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon setting up a group to advise on how to raise $100 billion per year by 2020 using what he called various "innovative mechanisms" including taxes on international aviation and banking transactions, the rich countries have been reluctant to commit. Africa remains the greatest sufferer of these emissions even while it contributes the least to all the greenhouse gases.

Now, the Kenyan government climate change experts, activists and agencies involved in food aid seem to agree that this mode of depending on aid for change has to be adjusted.

"Africa should take on climate change as a challenge with new opportunities for investment in corrective projects," explains Professor Odongo.