Kenya and Uganda have significantly increased their climate-related budget allocations in the 2026/27 financial year, signalling a growing fiscal response to escalating floods, droughts, wetland degradation and climate-linked infrastructure losses.

 

Kenya has raised its climate-related allocation to Ksh124.8 billion ($960 million) in 2026/27, from Ksh103.8 billion ($798 million) in 2025/26, reversing a previous budget contraction and restoring climate spending to a higher priority in national planning.

Uganda, meanwhile, has increased its allocation for climate, water resources and natural resource management to Ush494.08 billion ($133.5 million) in 2026/27, up from Ush366.1 billion ($98.9 million) in 2025/26, alongside a separate Ush361.88 billion ($97.8 million) contingency fund for disaster response.

In the 2025/26 financial year, climate-related spending in Kenya fell to Ksh103.8 billion ($798 million), from Ksh110 billion ($846 million) in the previous cycle, despite worsening drought conditions in parts of the country and increased flooding in urban and riverine areas.

That downward adjustment has now been reversed. The 2026/27 allocation of Ksh124.8 billion ($960 million) signals renewed prioritisation of climate resilience within national development planning.

Kenya’s Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi told Parliament that climate change is now embedded across development sectors rather than treated as a standalone environmental concern: “Environmental conservation, climate resilience, reforestation, biodiversity protection and land restoration are central to sustainable development.”

The government has allocated Ksh51.5 billion ($396 million) for water and sewerage systems, Ksh6.3 billion ($48.5 million) for water resource management, and Ksh2.5 billion ($19.2 million) for flood control and water storage systems.

Kenya’s climate reality is defined by water scarcity during dry seasons and destructive flooding during wet seasons, both of which are intensifying under climate variability.

However, in the arid and semi-arid (Asal) counties, drought conditions continue to outpace infrastructure expansion, while in urban informal settlements, flooding and poor sanitation remain persistent risks.

Kenya has also increased allocations for ecosystem protection and restoration, including Ksh13.4 billion ($90.8 million) for forest conservation, Ksh3.2 billion ($21.7 million) for tree growing programmes, and Ksh1.7 billion ($11.5 million) for forest research and development. Moreover, wildlife conservation receives Ksh13.2 billion ($89.5 million), alongside funding for human-wildlife conflict compensation and insurance schemes.

These allocations signal a growing policy shift in which ecosystems are increasingly being framed not just as environmental assets, but as critical systems that underpin tourism, agriculture, water regulation and rural livelihoods.

However, environmental degradation continues in several regions due to land pressure, deforestation and climate stress, raising questions about whether current investments are sufficient to reverse long-term ecological decline.

Kenya has also expanded its Financing Locally-Led Climate Action (FLLoCA) programme, allocated Ksh8.9 billion ($60.3 million), which channels climate finance directly to counties for adaptation projects.“Kenya is a leader in designing innovative,” Mr Mbadi said, “paradigm shifting locally led climate action, benefiting more than 2.5 million people.”FLLoCA’s implementation at the local level has increasingly highlighted governance and accountability challenges within Kenya’s decentralised climate finance model.

The programme, which channels money into community-based climate resilience projects across all 47 counties, is anchored on the principle that climate planning should begin at the household and community level, allowing local populations to identify and prioritise their own climate risks.

According to FLLoCA Programme Coordinator Peter Ondhengo, this bottom-up approach is central to the programme’s design.

The model is intended to strengthen local ownership of climate investments, ensuring that interventions such as water infrastructure, ecosystem restoration, climate-smart agriculture and adaptation projects respond directly to community priorities rather than being designed solely at national level.

Yet implementation remains uneven due to capacity gaps and delays at county level.

In practice, counties are required to demonstrate results and adherence to safeguards before funds are released under a Program-for-Results (P4R) financing model, where disbursements are tied to verified performance indicators rather than upfront funding.

In Uganda, climate-related spending has increased significantly from Ush366.1 billion ($98.9 million) in 2025/26 to Ush494.08 billion ($133.5 million) in 2026/27, reflecting a stronger fiscal response to environmental degradation, climate shocks and disaster risks.

Finance Minister Henry Musasizi said the government is prioritising restoration and resilience: “These funds will protect 1.26 million hectares of forest reserves and wetlands, restore 10,000 hectares of degraded wetlands, demarcate critical riverbanks and lakeshores.”Wetlands remain central to Uganda’s climate strategy. They function as natural buffers against floods and droughts while supporting agriculture, biodiversity and water regulation systems.

A key shift in Uganda’s budget is the expansion of disaster preparedness funding.

According to Mr Musasizi, the government has allocated Ush361.88 billion to the Contingency Fund, reflecting a shift in which climate disasters are increasingly being treated as recurring fiscal obligations rather than rare or exceptional emergencies.

However, experts warn that forecasting systems alone cannot reduce vulnerability without parallel investments in infrastructure, resilient housing and local adaptation capacity.

According to, Ishaam Abader, Director of the Regional Coordination Office, World Meteorological Organisation’s, the challenge in majority of the nations in Africa is not the absence of climate information but the ability to act on it in time to prevent disaster“Africa continues to face extreme weather events from floods to droughts. The continent still requires stronger systems and capacity to ensure that it is prepare for increasingly severe climate shocks.”Kenya is the leading beneficiary of the Green Climate Fund with a total of 37 projects approved and with a portfolio of more than $1 billion which led to Kenya’s identification as the host of Green Climate Fund Africa Regional office.

However, the gap is clearly reflected in Nairobi, where repeated flooding has exposed the limits of preparedness despite advance warnings from meteorologists.“We give the warnings, but what happened? What really happened that we ended up where we are? Is it planning? What is it?” Acting Director of the Kenya Meteorological Service Authority (KMSA), David Muriuki asked.

He pointed to deeper questions around urban planning, drainage systems and enforcement that continue to worsen the city’s flood risk.

The report notes that 55–62 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s workforce depends on agriculture, and that approximately 95% of cropland is rain-fed, making livelihoods highly sensitive to rainfall variability and temperature shifts.

World Bank environmental assessments further show that climate change is already reducing agricultural productivity, increasing water stress, damaging infrastructure, worsening health outcomes and slowing economic growth across Africa.

Kenya and Uganda sit within these structural vulnerabilities, where climate variability directly affects development outcomes and fiscal stability.

The most significant shift in both countries is function within governance systems.

Climate change is now embedded across water, agriculture, infrastructure, wildlife management and disaster response systems.

This represents policy integration but also institutional fragmentation as responsibilities are spread across multiple agencies.“Climate action is happening across government, but not always in a coordinated way.” Pascal Murasira, Executive Director of the African Food Fellowship (AFF) said.

At the same time, both countries remain heavily weighted toward reactive spending involving repairing damage rather than preventing risk.

This raises a central policy question of whether climate finance is transforming vulnerability or institutionalising recovery as a permanent feature of governance.“It is easy to say we are going to change the system,” Murasira explained, “but the actual execution is where things break down.”Despite rising allocations, climate impacts remain most visible at community level.

In Kenya’s arid regions, water scarcity persists despite infrastructure investment.

In urban informal settlements, flooding continues to destroy homes and livelihoods.

According to Wildlife Research and Training Institute, it has led to the decline of several of Kenya’s rangeland species, as shrinking habitats force animals into closer contact with people.

WRTI further reported that the loss and fragmentation of habitats, combined with bushmeat hunting, have significantly reduced wildlife populations across vast landscapes.“Beyond habitat loss and degradation, factors such as bushmeat hunting and the 2022 drought have taken a heavy toll on these species,” WRTI’s said noting that extreme conditions have intensified competition for scarce resources and pushed wildlife into human settlements in search of water and pasture.

The 2022 drought in Kenya, is said to have exposed how environmental stress can escalate human–wildlife tensions as animals moved long distances and increasingly strayed into farms and settlements, raising the risk of conflict and further losses.

Conservation authorities say weakened animals were more likely to die, become diseased or encroach on community land, deepening resentment and competition between people and wildlife.“These combined pressures including habitat loss, climate stress and disease,” WRTI explained, “are increasingly shaping how wildlife survives and interacts with human populations, underscoring the urgent need for stronger coexistence strategies and ecosystem protection.”In Uganda, communities near wetlands and riverbanks continue to experience displacement despite restoration efforts.

The Ugandan government says to have intensified investments in climate science, space technology and environmental protection as part of broader efforts to strengthen resilience against climate shocks.

It has developed modern satellite ground infrastructure at the Uganda National Space Centre in Mpoma, Mukono District.“This has enabled our scientists to successfully deploy a climate camera to the International Space Station,” Musasizi explained, “this advancement has expanded Uganda’s ability to generate real-time data for climate monitoring, environmental management, disaster preparedness and evidence-based decision-making.”At the same time, government spending has been directed toward reducing the impacts of climate change on communities and ecosystems.

Efforts to restore degraded ecosystems have also been scaled up, including the demarcation of 104 kilometres of wetland boundaries and the restoration of 15,000 hectares of wetlands.

In addition, 8,319 hectares of Central Forest Reserves were demarcated alongside 404 kilometres of forest boundaries, as authorities move to reinforce protection of natural resources and improve environmental management.

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