Ecological Grief in Kenya

Overview

This study is conducting ethnographic research in Kilifi, Kenya, a rural part of the country that has been enduring a devastating drought for several years. The study is exploring perceptions of Kilifi community members around ecological grief in response to loss/degradation of the surrounding environment, anticipated future losses, and disruptions to local knowledge systems. Potential connections of environmental distress with more serious conditions such as depressive and anxiety disorders will be examined as well. The study also engages policymakers, landowners, and business owners, to understand concerns that climate change poses for people’s health and what policy-relevant challenges exist and how they are framed or understood among social elites.

Publications: 

• Syed Shabab Wahid, Linda Norah Khakali, Felix Agoi, Benjamin Oestericher, Emily Mendenhall And Edna N. Bosire. "Cultural And Contextual Adaptation Of The Solastalgia Sub-scale Of The Environmental Distress Scale In Drought-affected Kilifi, Kenya." Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health (January 22, 2025): 1-20. 

• Syed Shabab Wahid, Christine Musyimi, Benjamin Oestericher, Linda Khakali, Lauren Carruth, Emily Mendenhall, and Edna N. Bosire. "Ecological Grief Among Farmers and Pastoralists In Ethiopia and Kenya." SSM - Mental Health, 7 (June 1, 2025): 100456. 

• Bosire, Edna N., Syed Shabab Wahid, Linda N. Khakali, Benjamin Oestericher, Felix Agoi, Janeeta Shaukat, Anthony Ngugi et al. "Drought, worry, and preparing for the future: The ethnopsychology of climate distress in Kilifi County, Kenya." SSM-Mental Health (2025): 100529.

tags: Emily Mendenhall | Edna Bosire | Benjamin Oestericher | Janeeta Shaukat | Shabab Wahid