A Rapid Review of Research Literature on the Health Impacts of Climate Change in Kenya: 2013 - 2020

Recent extreme weather events have brought to light the vulnerabilities of human health, wellbeing and livelihoods to a changing climate. While the ensuing global attention has sharpened national commitments towards mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, adaptation planning has received less consideration and support. For certain low and middle-income countries with minimal historic GHG contributions but high exposure to extreme weather events, effective adaptation policy is paramount to reaching development goals and contingent on access to finance, good governance and a strong evidentiary basis for action (UNEP 2021). Facilitating the latter is a growing body of scientific literature on climate change impacts and early warning systems, though research output tends to be dominated by high income countries (Klingelhöfer et al. 2020). Kenya’s equatorial position and large agrarian sector make it highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change (Mwangi & Mutua 2014; Althor et al. 2016; Signorelli et al. 2016). Kenya’s commitment to mitigation and adaptation activities, outlined in the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP; 2017 – 2022), contains only limited reference to activities to reduce the risks of adverse health outcomes. In support of strengthening adaptation policy planning for health, this rapid review was conducted to assess the research intensity on climate change impacts on health in Kenya and to identify evidence gaps and opportunities.