Mainstreaming Indigenous Knowledge in Climate Change Response: Traditional ‘Rainmaking’ in Kenya

Abstract

A number of Kenyan communities practise traditional rainmaking rituals. Although rainmaking processes, materials and participants vary, most communities believe that the tradition enables them to predict, cause, redirect or dispel rainfall. Although some modern scientists have dismissed the practice as irrelevant, irrational and ineffective, others advocate its integration to conventional meteorological approaches. Given the gravity of the impact of climate change in Kenya, most stakeholders concur that mainstreaming rainmaking traditions in the national climate change action plan would result in a better response to the phenomenon.Data for this study was collected through key informant interviews, documentary analysis and participation in stakeholder forum discussions. The author proposes that traditional rainmaking can be mainstreamed in the national climate change response through validation of the tradition through scientific research; integration of traditional rainmaking in modern meteorological processes; integration of traditional rainmaking in meteorological training curricula; commercialisation of the practice; patenting of rainmaking materials and processes; documentation and preservation of traditional rainmaking; and popularisation of the tradition. The author concludes that mainstreaming rainmaking in the climate change action plan has the potential to facilitate a better interpretation of weather patterns leading to equally better coping mechanisms; conservation of natural ecosystems; regulation of exploitation of the natural resources; better understanding of scientific weather forecasts through local contextualisation; and increased community participation in the management of the consequences of climate change. These findings can be used by climate change researchers, ethnographic researchers, governments as well as institutions or individuals managing climate change in Kenya and beyond.