For decades, Kenya's fight against malaria has focused on traditional hotspots around Lake Victoria and the Coast.
A new study suggests that strategy is no longer enough. Climate change is redrawing the malaria map, pushing the disease into cooler highland regions where communities have little immunity and health systems are less prepared.
This should alarm policymakers.
The warning is not that malaria will suddenly explode across the country, but that the threat is shifting. Counties that have never considered themselves high-risk may soon find themselves battling a disease they have little experience managing. Waiting for outbreaks before responding would be a costly mistake.
Kenya's climate adaptation plans must now treat health as seriously as droughts, floods and food security. Disease surveillance should be expanded into emerging risk areas, healthcare workers retrained, diagnostic capacity strengthened and mosquito-control programmes rolled out before transmission accelerates.
The study also reminds the world that cutting emissions remains essential. But even if global warming slows, Kenya cannot afford to wait for international action. Preparing communities, investing in resilient health systems and strengthening malaria control today will save lives tomorrow.
Climate change is not only changing the weather. It is changing where disease lives. Our public health response must change with it.
