• Kenya’s National Wildlife Census 2025 has sounded an alarm over collapsing waterbird populations in critical wetlands across the Rift Valley and coastal regions. 
The recently released National Wildlife Census 2025 Technical Report revealed a worrying collapse in waterbird population across Kenya’s critical wetland systems. The trends are specifically not good along wetlands in both the Rift Valley and the Coastal region.

The census monitored trends in waterbird abundance and species richness for three years from 2023 to 2025. The results painted a dire picture for several global significant sites.

The most dramatic decline was experienced in Lake Elementaita, a designated Ramsar site. The lake, which recorded the highest count in 2023 with 208,712 individuals, saw that population collapse to a mere 5,360 birds by 2025.

This catastrophic decline was primarily driven by the near-total disappearance of the Lesser Flamingo, which plummeted from over 202,000 individuals to just 1,476 over the three years.

Other iconic wetlands in Rift Valley also exhibited distress. Lake Nakuru on the other hand, experienced a steady decline from 22,533 birds in 2023 to 15,543 in 2025 while Lake Naivasha's waterbird population was nearly halved, falling from 15,985 to 7,497 during the period. Lake Bogoria displayed volatile fluctuations.

At the coast, Mida Creek recorded an alarming indicator of ecosystem instability. While bird numbers were moderate, the number of species declined from 99 species in 2024 to only 21 species in 2025
A team of experts during a past census at Nakuru National Park on December ,10, 2022. (Photo credit: Caroline Chebet)

What does this decline mean?

Birds are reliable indicators of ecosystem health. The data tells when the ecosystem is healthy and when it is in distress. Waterbird census is often conducted to inform conservation and management actions needed to secure Kenya's wetlands.

The recent data reflect underlying environmental challenges such as pollution, climate change and degradation.

Endangered Crane and New Hope

Despite the worrying trends in major Rift Valley and Coastal wetlands, the census provided some hope. An aerial survey in December 2024 documented a large waterbird congregation at the remote Lake Logipi in Turkana County. The survey recorded a stunning 768,768 waterbirds, which included 737,243 Lesser Flamingos.

This current figure dwarfs the current populations in the major alkaline lakes, including Bogoria, Nakuru and Elementaita. These lakes form the Kenya Lake System and are inscribed within the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Lake Nakuru, one of the Ramsar sites whose water quality has been changing following the increasing water levels. (Photo/Courtesy: Caroline Chebet)

The report also reported a new hope on the recovery of the endangered Grey crowned crane. The census confirmed the ongoing efforts to secure the Kenyan population and map their distribution. The grey crowned crane has been on a negative trajectory over the past years, especially in Lake Ol Bollosat, which used to host large congregations.

These trends should sound a wake-up call to all the stakeholders. There is a need to pay more attention to the wetlands to preserve the species that entirely depend entirely on them. There is a need to put stringent measures in place and implement existing policies to preserve these delicate sites from choking from pollution, the effects of climate change and human activities.

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