NAIROBI, Kenya– Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) has faulted c calling it a “troubling setback” to Kenya’s climate resilience ambitions.
Its Executive Director, Mithika Mwenda, asserted that the budget cut, which slashes climate funding from Sh9 billion to Sh4.9 billion, jeopardizes thousands of community-led projects under frameworks like the Climate Change Act (2016) and the Financing Locally-Led Climate Action (FLLoCA) program.
According to Mwenda, these mechanisms have empowered counties to implement solutions in climate-smart agriculture, water conservation, clean energy, and disaster risk reduction.
“This reduction directly threatens hard-earned gains in community-based climate action,” he said.
The lobby group warns that the cuts will disproportionately affect vulnerable populations, including women, youth, and pastoralist communities.
Mwenda urged leaders at both national and county levels to reconsider the move and recommit to climate financing.
“Investing in climate resilience is not charity, it is national survival and a constitutional obligation to the Kenyan people.”
PACJA and other environmental advocates are now calling for urgent policy reversal, emphasizing that the climate crisis will not wait for political alignment or budget debates.
The funding cuts, they argue, risk reversing Kenya’s status as a trailblazer in locally-led climate governance across Africa.
This, even as lawmakers push for a stronger accountability framework, demanding clarity on who oversees the billions allocated to county climate efforts.
Earlier, FLLoCA coordinator Peter Odhengo revealed that 90% of the funds have been channeled to county-level projects, with just 10% reserved for national capacity building a model several MPs argued must be reviewed.
