The East African Community (EAC) has adopted the EAC El Niño Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan, which sets out a joint regional response to what climate scientists warn could become a very strong El Niño event.
According to a statemet from the EAC on Monday, the Plan was adopted at the Ministerial Session of the Extraordinary Meeting of the Joint Sectoral Council on Cooperation in Defence Affairs, Interstate Security and Foreign Policy Coordination on 6th November, 2026.
The meeting was chaired by Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of East African Community Affairs, of Uganda, and Chairperson of the EAC Council of Ministers.
“This meeting is not routine; it is urgent,” said Rt. Kadaga. “The scientists have issued their warnings, and the clouds are gathering over Lake Victoria, the highlands of Burundi and Rwanda, Mount Elgon, Mount Kenya and the Indian Ocean. El Niño is here. We have learnt the hard way, from 1997 to 2023–24, that the cost of unpreparedness is always higher than the cost of preparedness. Our Heads of State have directed that we must never again respond as eight separate countries.”
The chairperson called for transport corridors to be declared protected regional assets, with a joint corridor contingency plan, prepositioned emergency bridges and round-the-clock information on road conditions. “A truck driver in Mombasa should know before he departs whether Malaba is passable,” she noted.
She urged development partners to support the national and regional plans, but called on partner states above all to commit domestic resources. “The people of East Africa, from Kisumu to Kigoma and from Goma to Garissa, do not want reports. They want assurance that their governments are ready. El Niño must find East Africa ready, coordinated and united.”
The IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC) briefed the meeting that El Niño is firmly established and expected to strengthen, possibly reaching very strong intensity, with a positive Indian Ocean Dipole likely to amplify its effects. Above-normal October–December rainfall is likely across most of the region, with the strongest signal over eastern Kenya and central to southern Somalia.
“The science leaves no doubt, El Niño is already here, and there is a near 100% probability that it will persist through February 2027. The question for our region is no longer whether El Niño will come, but how ready we are when the rains peak,” said Mr. Calistus Wachana of ICPAC.
The danger does not end when the rains stop. In this region, El Niño-induced rains are typically followed by drought, hot dry spells and cross-border pastoral movement. Because the event is expected to last into February 2027, it may also affect the March–May long rains. Partner States were urged to be proactive, plan for the whole cycle and adapt their agricultural, water and livestock strategies. ICPAC committed to keep monitoring the event and its after-effects and to share regular updates with the EAC Secretariat and National Meteorological and Hydrological Services.
The Cabinet Secretary for East African Community Affairs, ASALs and Regional Development, Republic of Kenya, Beatrice Askul Moe, said Kenya had moved to an all-of-government approach led by the National Disaster Operations Centre.
Noting that risks have been mapped across 18 priority counties, relief supplies prepositioned, the Northern Corridor placed under monitoring and cholera kits deployed to high-risk areas. “The scientific evidence is unequivocal: no Partner State can manage a transboundary shock of this kind alone,” she said. “We need real-time data sharing, faster border clearance for emergency supplies and a humanitarian corridor across our region. Let our borders be bridges for aid, not barriers.”
Speaking for Uganda, Minister of Internal Affairs, Prof. Ephraim Kamuntu, said climate shocks are both security and economic shocks. “When the Katonga River washed away its crossing, regional traffic was paralyzed. A bridge lost at Malaba or Busia would be felt as far away as Kigali,” he said. “We share rivers, lakes, corridors and pastoral routes, so none of us can prepare alone. Some of our people will face floods while others face drought, and our response must continue into 2027.”
He called for a regional mutual assistance framework so that personnel can respond quickly across borders when a Partner State requests help.
WN/as/APA