Kenya and other East African economies are bracing for unusually dry start to 2025, with the first three months expected to bring drier-than-usual weather conditions. 

This forecast signals a looming threat to agricultural productivity in a region heavily reliant on rain-fed farming, further straining economies that are already vulnerable to climate shocks and food insecurity.

According to an update by the Climate Prediction and Applications Center of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the harsh start is projected to affect Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and Tanzania.

"Normal temperatures are likely to be recorded in a few areas of northern Uganda and western Sudan," the weather agency stated on Monday implying that the East African region is bracing for warmer-than-usual temperatures in January, February and March 2025.

"Drier than normal conditions expected over Rwanda, Burundi, and most parts of Tanzania. The rest of the region is expected to remain dry during the month of January," the Centre explained.

This prediction comes even as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) forecasts that there is about 80 percent chance that one of the next five years will be the warmest year on record.

"There is a 47 percent chance that the entire 2024-2028 period will be above the 1.5 degrees celcius limit set by the Paris Agreement on Climate Change," the WMO, notes in its recent report.

At the moment, the Horn of Africa region is one of the worst ravaged by adverse effects of climate change including floods, drought, leaving roughly 64 million people in need of humanitarian food assistance as at the end of November 2024 according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and IGAD.

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