Kenya

Country Overview

Kenya is increasingly exposed to both extreme climate events and slow-onset processes such as recurrent droughts, flooding, and environmental degradation, contributing to displacement, infrastructure damage, and rising food insecurity disproportionally affecting Arid and Semi-Arid Lands. Kenya is also hosting a large population of refugees and asylum seekers (over 840,000 as of March 2026) seeking refuge from conflicts in neighbouring countries. From early 2025, unprecedented funding cuts have deeply affected refugees’ access to assistance and services, just ahead of the planned transition from a camp-based to an integrated settlement approach under the Shikira Plan.

IMPACT began working in Kenya in 2016 through its initiative REACH to monitor needs in vulnerable populations with a focus on refugee camps and ASAL Counties. Ten years later, IMPACT conducts the yearly Multi Sectoral Needs Assessment to provide humanitarian actors with a deep understanding of needs and access to services in parallel of running the Joint Market Monitoring Initiative (JMMI) to guide cash assistance.

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Research Highlights

Building Resilience: Addressing the Impacts of Climate-related Hazards on Livelihoods and Unpaid Household Labour in Kenya’s Refugee-Hosting Counties
November 2025

Climate change is increasingly driving households in Kenya’s refugee-hosting areas, particularly Kakuma, Dadaab, and Kibera, toward harmful coping strategies that threaten their livelihoods, health, and general well-being. Based on evidence from recent assessments that highlight how extreme heat, droughts, floods, and other climate-related hazards have intensified vulnerabilities for both refugee and host communities.

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Multi-Sectoral Needs Assessment (MSNA): Refugee Households
June 2025

Cuts to refugee rations and cash transfers have sharply reduced recent assistance coverage, leaving households reliant on in-kind food aid, borrowing and credit purchases. Food is consistently reported as the top unmet need;
Water supply across camps has become unreliable due to underfunding, with families frequently reporting insufficient drinking water;
Households mainly depend on unstable income sources. Over 70% reported resorting to stress, crisis, or emergency coping strategies in the past month, eroding resilience.

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