- Kenya’s climate preparedness must protect maternal and newborn lives, not just roads, homes, and livelihoods.
By Dr Richard Mogeni Mogaka,
A pregnant woman in drought-stricken northern Kenya needs food, safe water, and antenatal care.
When the rains turn into floods, she may need an ambulance to cross a damaged road, a functioning maternity unit, and a team ready to manage an emergency.
Her newborn needs warmth, feeding support, and uninterrupted care.
What happens when labour begins, and the road to hospital is impassable? What happens when a newborn needs urgent treatment but the facility has no electricity or essential medicines?
These are the questions Kenya must confront as it prepares for the October–December short-rains season.
The World Meteorological Organization warned that the developing El Niño could become one of the strongest on record.
The impact on Kenya will vary by region, so local forecasts must guide preparedness rather than assumptions that every county will experience flooding.
For communities already struggling with drought, heavy rains could bring another set of hardships. Drought threatens food security, household incomes, and access to water.
Floods can contaminate water sources, damage roads, and disrupt health services. For pregnant women, these disruptions can mean missed antenatal visits, delayed referrals, and difficulty reaching emergency obstetric care.
Kenya cannot protect mothers and newborns without preparing its health system for climate emergencies.
The Every Woman, Every Newborn, Everywhere (EWENE) Acceleration Plan 2026–2028 provides a framework for action.
Its ambitions will be difficult to achieve if pregnant women cannot reach health facilities or those facilities cannot provide timely, quality care during disasters.
The three delays that contribute to maternal deaths help explain the problem. A woman may delay seeking care because she does not recognise danger signs or cannot afford transport.
She may seek help but find flooded roads impassable. Even after reaching hospital, she may face delays because staff, medicines, water, or electricity are unavailable.
Climate preparedness must address all three, anchored by the global gold standard for humanitarian crises: the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) for reproductive health.
The MISP is a coordinated series of life-saving activities designed to be implemented at the absolute onset of an emergency.
It requires health sectors to designate lead agencies, prevent and manage the consequences of sexual violence, reduce transmission of HIV, prevent excess maternal and newborn mortality, and plan for comprehensive reproductive health services as soon as possible.
The real difference will come from investing in health systems that enable pregnant women and mothers to access the care they need when they need it.
Telling pregnant women to attend clinics is not enough if transport is unavailable or services are out of reach. Effective climate-health policies must combine information with practical support.
County governments should begin by identifying flood-prone communities and vulnerable maternity facilities.
They must test emergency referral arrangements, establish reliable communication channels, and plan how pregnant women and newborns will reach care when roads are cut off.
Health facilities also need practical contingency plans. These should cover backup power, safe water, essential medicines, staffing, and continuity of emergency obstetric and newborn services.
Emergency shelters must provide sanitation, menstrual hygiene supplies, and protection for women and girls.
Community health promoters and midwives should communicate local weather warnings, identify vulnerable pregnant women, and help families maintain antenatal and postnatal care.
Counties should then report whether facilities remained functional, referrals were completed, and essential services continued during emergencies.
Finally, climate preparedness must be reflected in budgets and public accountability.
Maternal and perinatal death reviews should identify where disrupted transport or health services contributed to preventable deaths and ensure that corrective action follows.
Kenya cannot control the weather. It can prepare its health system for its consequences.
EWENE and the rigorous application of the MISP must mean that a woman can reach emergency childbirth care even when roads flood, and that a newborn receives essential treatment even when a disaster disrupts normal services.
When drought gives way to floods, every woman and every newborn must remain within reach of care.
The author, Dr Richard Mogeni Mogaka, is Chairman of the Kenya Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society (KOGS) – North Rift, Vice Chairman of the Kenya Medical Association (KMA) – Eldoret, and National Co-convener, Managed Healthcare.