Saturday, August 31, 2013
Kenya is expected to receive lower-than-normal
and poorly distributed rains in the last quarter of 2013, which could impact
agricultural production and power supply from hydro-electric dams, the meteorological
department said on Friday.
East Africa's biggest economy relies heavily on
agriculture and power from dams.
Analysts watch the forecasts to gauge the impact on
inflation, which could be pushed up if harvests are weak and cheap hydropower
is in short supply.
Inflation rose to 6.67% in the year to August from 6.02%
a month earlier.
"Generally depressed rainfall is expected over most
agricultural areas of the country. It is also expected that the rainfall will
be poorly distributed," the department said.
"This will impact negatively on the agricultural
activities in most of the areas. Food security is expected to deteriorate
especially in the eastern sector of Kenya during the October-December
period," it said in a statement.
Kenya has two rainy seasons, the so-called short rains of
October to December and the long rains of March to May.
The meteorological department said the short rains
outlook in the food-growing areas of the Western, Nyanza and Rift Valley
regions would be for near- or above-normal rain.
It said some other food-growing areas such as central, southeastern
and coastal regions would have near-normal rains.
For hydropower generation, the department said catchment
areas in western Kenya would have near- to above-normal rainfall, improving
water levels in some dams.
But normal to below-normal rains in the Tana and Athi
River catchment areas were likely to lead to low flows to major dams, it said,
adding that this could reduce hydro-electric power capacity.
The department said parts of the country's northeastern
and eastern provinces, which border Somalia and Ethiopia which are already
drought prone, would receive scant rainfall.