Climate change activists from 7 African countries on Thursday October 13 2022 brought mid-morning business on major Nairobi streets to a standstill as they marched from Upper Hill across Mombasa road to Haile Selassie, and parliament road. Dressed in white T-shirts and donning banners and placards, the activists staged peaceful demos outside the office of the deputy president Rigathi Gachagau and the Nairobi county governor Johnson Sakaja The DP was said to be in Rwanda while Sakaja had an earlier engagement.
The Climate activists chanting and blowing trumpets calling on the rich countries to honour their final pledges at next month Cop27 in Cairo, Egypt have called on African countries to speak in one voice when they negotiate for climate change funding and famine relief at the conference that begins on November 6 2022. The activists were carrying the symbolic climate change Torch whose journey started in Gabon, before going to Senegal and was received this week in Nairobi. The symbolic torch will now head to South Africa ahead of the climate conference next month. The activists made a stop over at the Nation media offices where brief statements were made by representatives from Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya.
The Climate activists are under Pan-African climate justice alliance and Kenya platform for Climate Governance are demanding action by rich countries to curb carbon emissions of 85 percent that have caused climate change with negative impacts on people’s livelihoods, including the right to life, to food, water, and health, and to a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. According to the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC), Africa is the most vulnerable continent to climate change impacts under all climate scenarios above 1.5°C.
The NGO Council of Kenya Members who are part of Kenya Platform of Climate Governance (KPCG) were among the participants who participated in the two day s regional climate change conference and Climate Torch March in Nairobi and through the Chairman backed calls for climate justice in Africa as the continent only accounts for 4% global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but bears the brunt of 85 percent pollution from industrialised countries. According to NGO Council Chairman Stephen Kipchumba Cheboi, Africa has been condemned to perennial climate-related challenges with millions at risk of starvation due to prolonged drought. Speaking during the climate climate , Cheboi urged the media in Kenya and the region to be clear voices in the fight against 'man-made" climate change. He said climate change had affected public health and infrastructure investments, economies, water, food systems, and agriculture.
Cheboi said it is a grave injustice that people in developing countries are paying a heavy price for the pollution from industrialized countries. He said matters are further compounded by the fact that the cost of historical and current emissions will be disproportionately borne by future generations. "Our children have not wronged anybody why should they be born to carry the burden of rich pollutants", said Cheboi. He said the trans-boundary nature of climate change requires all countries to reduce emissions and achieve zero carbon emissions. He said G20 countries are responsible for 78% of current global annual emissions, with some having a heightened responsibility because of the emissions they have historically produced since the beginning
of the industrial revolution. In addition, the highest historical emitters are among the wealthiest states.
Uganda climate change activist Florence Kasure demanded for more climate financing from rich countries to improve on the adaptive capacity of African countries, communities, and ecosystems to mitigate irreversible economic and non-economic losses and damages. Kasure noted that for three consecutive rainy seasons, the eastern Horn of Africa has experienced poor rainfall confounded by Covid-19 and desert locust invasions, putting millions at risk of starvation across parts of Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia. Already, livestock and wildlife are dying of thirst and hunger in large numbers. And at the heart of it all is the worsening climate crisis.
