HABITABLE: Habitability and Adaptation to a Changing Climate: Impacts of climate change on agriculture and human mobility in communities in Makueni County, Kenya

January 2025

This background brief scrutinises the repercussions of climate change on livelihoods and human mobility in three communities in Makueni County, Kenya: Kathyaka, Kikoko, and Ngulu. Following an overview of Kenya's climatic and socioeconomic challenges, we summarise insights from qualitative interviews from these three agricultural communities, focusing on the role of migration among other local coping mechanisms. The challenges faced by these communities exhibit common themes. This brief then examines Kenya’s policies and legal frameworks acknowledging different dimensions of human mobility related to climate change.

It evaluates the extent to which these frameworks offer solutions to the problems experienced in these communities, which, in turn, intensify migration patterns. We conclude with recommendations to address the climate change human mobility nexus in Kenya, in particular by tackling shortcomings in existing policies and legal frameworks and by bolstering community resilience and adaptation strategies.

Read the full brief here.