A few days ago I read an article on the BBC's website about the ongoing drought in Kenya. I quickly emailed Dr. Margaret Kinnaird, the director of the Mpala Wildlife Center, in Nanyuki, Kenya. This was her reply:
     Thanks for your concern and yes, we are in the midst of the worst drought in at least 40 years.  Cattle are dying everywhere and as you can imagine the competition for limited water sources is huge.  We've lost 40 baby elephants in Laikipia in the past few months - mainly due to dehydration of already emaciated individuals. The Ewaso dried up for the first time in recorded history - but this isn't all due to the drought.  The government has been unable to enforce their laws regarding abstraction of water upstream and as a result, very little makes it downstream to us.  The illegal abstractors are mainly agro projects and some horticultural projects (roses and lilies for the US and Europe).  Combine that with the decrease in glaciers on Mt. Kenya and no rain, and you have a very dry river bed.  Every single one of our dams on Mpala offers only cracked earth but we're trying to use this to our advantage to clean and dredge deeper what we can afford in hopes of coming rains.  These are certainly tricky times for us with the downturn in the economy and now thin cattle and limited natural resources.  I keep telling myself that Africa is always a challenging place to live but I'm seeing it in all it's reality right now.  

All the best (please do a rain dance for us),
Margaret

    I certainly will and I ask anyone who reads this join me. For our friends in Kenya.

For more information on the drought in Kenya refer to the article on the BBC's website.

For more information on the Kenyan flower growing refer to the Kenya Flower Council