Lesser flamingo at Lake Bogoria /FILEThe Kenya Meteorological Department and the national government have rightly sounded the alarm over the impending El Niño weather pattern. The proactive state interventions – setting aside Sh1.2 billion for livestock contingency measures and an additional Sh1.5 billion specifically for pre-positioning vaccines and veterinary drugs – represent a crucial safety net for pastoralists and rural communities.
The government has also advanced its efforts to address the rising water levels in lakes Baringo and Bogoria by establishing immediate emergency shelters and undertaking critical engineering works to manage water surges. While these human and pastoral interventions are essential, a glaring ecological question remains:
Who is talking about the devastating impact of El Niño on Lake Bogoria’s iconic lesser flamingos?
Lake Bogoria is a globally recognised Ramsar Site, Unesco World Heritage Site and Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA); world-famous as the primary feeding sanctuary for millions of near-threatened lesser flamingos (Phoeniconaias minor).
These birds rely entirely on the lake’s unique soda-rich, highly alkaline waters, which support massive blooms of microscopic blue-green algae – Spirulina (Arthrospira fusiformis) – as their primary food source.
They regulate the lake's aquatic environment by consuming immense quantities of spirulina, maintaining nutrient cycles within the lake. Economically, the iconic "pink spectacle" contributes to Baringo county’s eco-tourism sector, generating tens of millions of shillings annually in park entry fees, hotel bookings and tour operations.
Crucially, in compliance with the Nagoya Protocol and local benefit-sharing frameworks, revenue derived from tourism directly funds community development, providing student bursaries, healthcare facilities, clean water infrastructure and local conservancies for surrounding indigenous communities.
However,heavy floodwaters resulting from El Niño pouring into the enclosed basin will dilute Lake Bogoria’s salinity and alkalinity. This chemical shift will destroy the Spirulina blooms, effectively wiping out the flamingos' food supply.
Deprived of nourishment, hundreds of thousands of lesser flamingos will be forced to abandon Lake Bogoria in search of alternative feeding grounds. Additionally, rapidly rising water levels submerge the shallow mudflats and shoreline feeding niches essential for both lesser flamingos and their larger companions, the greater flamingos.
The severity of this ecological displacement was revealed in a joint bird census across seven Rift Valley lakes (Magadi, Bogoria, Nakuru, Naivasha, Elementaita, Baringo and Logipi) conducted by Nature Kenya, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), National Museums of Kenya (NMK) and community partners.
The census confirmed a widespread decline in flamingo numbers across traditional strongholds like Lake Bogoria due to ongoing lake rise and food collapse. Instead, the survey tracked a massive migration to Lake Logipi in remote Suguta, Turkana county, which hosted an estimated 737,000 lesser flamingos, one of the largest single counts in East Africa. Surveys in 2025 and 2026 even recorded active breeding at Logipi, with juveniles making up 20 to 40 per cent of the flocks.
This nomadic shift highlights a major conservation gap: while Lake Bogoria is a formally protected national reserve, Lake Logipi lacks equivalent legal protection, leaving the displaced flamingos vulnerable as climate extremes force them to move across unprotected habitats.
Because national contingency budgets fund livestock health and human safety infrastructure, wild birds like the lesser flamingo receive virtually no direct share of emergency disaster allocations.
The birds not only contribute to biodiversity conservation but also mark the pride of Kenya as a country. As part of preparedness, the government must align emergency response with Kenya’s National Recovery and Conservation Action Plan for the Lesser Flamingo (2026–2035) to extend formal legal protection to emergency refuges like Lake Logipi, fulfilling Kenya's commitments under the Ramsar Convention, Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) and Convention on Migratory Species (CMS).
Unlike huge wildlife such as crocodiles, which the government through KWS has actively relocated, the bird (lesser flamingo) naturally migrates to safer habitat over time. Thus, the funds must be allocated to conduct simultaneous counts and sustained monitoring to understand flamingo movements and protect emerging breeding sites.
Protecting livestock and other wildlife while leaving the spectacle of Lake Bogoria's pink horizons to suffer the full brunt of El Niño is an incomplete disaster strategy. To build true climate resilience, Kenya must safeguard both its people, rural livelihoods and the iconic avian heritage of the Great Rift Valley.
