Kenya’s rain will be determined by Indian Ocean - Met

Workers clear drainage channel on Lang’ata Road, Nairobi /DOUGLAS OKIDDY

How heavy will the coming rains be? The weatherman says the answer is not in El Niño. It is in the ocean right next to Kenya.

Jemima Gacheru, a principal meteorologist at the Kenya Meteorological Service Authority (KMSA), explained that although the world is already under a strong El Niño, this phenomenon alone cannot tell how much rain will fall in Kenya in October-December.

The bigger question for the country is what happens in the Indian Ocean through a climate pattern known as the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD).

"So this is just to demystify that notion that El Niño is always equal to rainfall. That is not always the case," Gacheru said at a webinar hosted by the KMSA.