Kenyans were relieved to see the rains finally start falling in parts of the country after a lengthy dry spell that led to drought in several counties, where food relief is now required.
The meteorological department had issued alerts that rainfall would be experienced from this week, citing Western Kenya, Central and South Rift Valley as areas to experience showers and thunderstorms.
Nairobi and parts of Central Kenya were also included in their forecast.
According to the weatherman, showers and thunderstorms are now expected Western Kenya, Southern and Central Rift Valley and Central Highlands including Nairobi.
Moderate to heavy Rainfall is also expected over the same areas from Monday and throughout next week.
This comes amid concerns that the country is staring at another drought crisis following the failure of long rains expected in this month.
Last week, the meteorological department said the situation could be worse with rains expected in May likely to be at best depressed.
“We are expecting more drier conditions we’ll have isolated showers here and there, highlands, central and western parts of the country, the prevailing weather conditions that we are seeing currently and we expecting to see as we go towards the end of the month is the dry conditions and mainly sunny intervals,” says Chief Meteorologist Patricia Nying’uro.
The capital had rains in several parts including the Central Business District to relief its dwellers of the dust that they had lived with in the months of March and April, contrary to previous years. The two months are normally characterized by heavy downpours in the city but this year has been starkly different.
While Nairobians maybe wary of the aftermath of the rain in the context of blocked sewerage and drainage systems, the drops of rain are a huge relief and they would hope that recent efforts by Governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko’s government to unclog the city drainage and sewer lines will save them of the past experiences.