Met Dept Boss: I Don’t Know Where President Ruto Got El Nino Misinformation
David Gikungu, the director of the Meteorological Department, claims he is unaware of the source of the false information that the department reduced its El Nino phenomenon alert and provided to President William Ruto.
Ruto on October 22 said the department had cut back its El Nino alert to short rains, telling a church service in Nairobi’s Dagoretti area, “You see the department has now said there will be no El Nino, we will only have significant rains, which is even better for us to get to our farms and produce more.”
He even attributed the precipitation Kenya is currently experiencing to the prayers he led at the Nyayo National Stadium in February, claiming that they were fruitful.
“There are those who criticized us when we prayed for rains at Nyayo stadium. They said a whole president is praying for rain. Now see, we have more rains than we have had in four years, that is God’s doing,” Ruto said then.
His declaration contradicted earlier departmental warnings dating back to May, in which the meteorologist predicted that El Nino would develop in Kenya from October to December 2024, with the possibility of its extension to January 2024.
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At this time, Gikungu asserts that Ruto’s declaration was not the consequence of their predictions failing. Sunday night, during an interview with Citizen TV, the Mets manager was questioned regarding the cause of the misunderstanding.
“I hope that one day I will find out the truth,” he responded, “The science was not wrong. The statements we have been giving, what you would call official communication, have not suggested anything that would withdraw the El Nino phenomenon.”
On November 10, three weeks after Ruto’s announcement, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua summoned the Met Department head to address the current condition of rainfall in the country and demanded an apology from him for the government’s misunderstanding on the subject.
Gikungu asserts that the purpose of his contrition was to rectify the alleged discrepancies in the forecast, and he is uncertain as to who provided the president with such information.
“I am yet to know the source of that information, but as the head of the department, I needed to state that the forecast has not changed. I needed to state that I am sorry about that miscommunication because as far as I am and the science is concerned… we are all in an El Nino season,” he said on Sunday.
When queried about his apprehension regarding the Met Department’s future credibility, the director responded, “I am. “Because of my position, I am naturally concerned; therefore, I have issued an apology.”
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Concurrently, the head of the Meteorological Department advised inhabitants of Kitui County, the North Eastern region, and the eastern highlands of the Rift Valley to exercise heightened caution due to the anticipated intensification of precipitation during the upcoming week.
Moreover, due to its proximity to the eastern highlands of the Rift Valley, he cautioned that Nairobi might receive a portion of the increased precipitation this week.
Gikungu predicts that the precipitation will persist until the conclusion of January 2024.
According to the government, the impact of the El Nino rainfall has expanded from the initial 19 counties to 33.
The most recent data from the Kenya Red Cross places the number of fatalities caused by the precipitation at 61. Additionally, 235 individuals have been reported injured, and eight remain missing.
Since the rainfall began in October, according to the humanitarian organization, 80,518 households have been impacted, of which nearly half have been displaced.
Met Dept Boss: I Don’t Know Where President Ruto Got El Nino Misinformation
