Nairobi Deploys Youth 'Green Army' to Head Off El Niño Flooding

Nairobi is a city of rivers, streams and almost six million people, and for weeks it has been bracing for potentially catastrophic flooding. Forecasters expect the strongest El Niño event on record this winter. The so-called Super El Niño is likely to peak globally in November or December and persist into early 2027.

The city is not simply waiting. On a recent sunny October day near the city center, a crew in reflective vests shoveled dirt and cleared debris from a riverbank. The weather was unseasonably hot, and unusually hot days often point to a stronger rainy season ahead.

"The best thing to do is to be prepared," said Alex Oyando, a 30-year-old worker. "These drainage troughs are full of different things. When we remove the dirt, the water can flow, and it prevents flooding."

Nairobi's county government has mobilized the "Green Army," a youth-employment program with more than 4,000 participants. Workers are usually assigned to trash pickups and city greening projects, but they are now clearing drainages and dismantling illegal structures such as food stalls. These buildings are typically put up by communities without government permits and are more likely to collapse during natural disasters. Earlier this month, Oyando and his colleagues widened a drainage ditch beside a busy road lined with clothing stalls, where fabric, plastic bottles and other litter regularly pile up and trigger flash floods.

Many Green Army workers live in, or grew up in, the low-income neighborhoods that suffer most from flash floods. Oyando said his own street often fills with water when it rains, flooding his home. Bramwell Simiyu, the county's chief officer of disaster management, said the city's long-standing infrastructure was built for no more than 2 million people, while the daytime population is now close to 7 million.

More than 100 people died in rain-induced flash floods last March, and residents have pressed the government to do more. Kenya's federal government has adopted a $385 million plan to widen Nairobi's waterways, build affordable housing and improve trash pickup and the sewer system by the end of 2027. The plan also backs a national youth employment program called Climate WorX, which is working with the Green Army on El Niño preparations. Simiyu said the county is stocking supplies and readying evacuation centers, and is planning for a worst-case scenario in which up to about 20,000 households, mostly in low-income settlements, could be affected.

The demolitions have caused an outcry in those settlements. Tobias Sifuna, a Green Army supervisor in the Kamukunji area, called them necessary. "These are small kiosks that are built illegally, by the community, without the authorization from the county government," he said.

Nearby residents depend on the kiosks for income and daily shopping. Wycliffe Ochieng, a 32-year-old fruit vendor, said many workers in central Nairobi now have nowhere to buy an affordable hot lunch. During the last rainy season he was forced to sleep outdoors because floodwaters blocked his way home. "This place, it's like an ocean when it's raining," he said. A friend who ran a food stall died while trying to escape, and he lost his own small grocery stand. Rebuilding in a new neighborhood was hard, he said, because customers there did not know him.

Ochieng hopes the county can do more to prevent flooding and protect livelihoods, noting there are only so many times he can start over. "We are all scared. I fear if El Niño comes, I won't come back again."