Kenya’s Meteorology Act: New Permit Rules for Weather Data

Kenya now regulates weather the same way it regulates other technical infrastructure. The Meteorology Act, 2026 creates a dedicated Authority to run the country’s official meteorological services and, more importantly for private businesses, introduces a permit requirement for anyone carrying out meteorological observations, weather forecasting, or weather modification activities. Getting this wrong is not a minor compliance slip: the penalty for operating without a permit runs up to five million shillings or five years in prison, or both. This article covers what the Act actually requires and who needs to pay attention to it.

The New Law: The Meteorology Act, 2026

The Meteorology Act, 2026 (Act No. 7 of 2026) was assented to on 27 March 2026. It establishes a statutory framework for meteorological services in Kenya, replacing the informal arrangements that previously governed weather observation and forecasting, and it creates both a new state authority and a licensing regime that reaches into private commercial activity.

A New Authority With Broad Powers

Section 5 of the Act establishes the Kenya Meteorological Service Authority as a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal, capable of suing and being sued, holding property, entering contracts, and borrowing money in its own name. The Authority is made responsible for the provision of meteorological services in Kenya and is designated the principal technical advisor to both the national government and county governments on meteorological matters. This places all official weather data, forecasting standards, and technical guidance to government under a single institutional roof rather than leaving it dispersed across departments.

Section 9 sets out the Authority’s functions in more detail. It is responsible for ensuring compliance with international standards for meteorological services and for the installation and maintenance of meteorological instruments, for approving and registering meteorological stations operating in Kenya, and for monitoring and supervising meteorological operators. In effect, the Authority becomes both the technical standard-setter and the supervisory body for anyone providing weather-related services in the country, whether public or private.

The Permit Requirement: Who Actually Needs One

Section 10 is the provision that reaches beyond government. It requires any person intending to undertake meteorological observations, weather forecasting activities, or weather modification activities to apply to the Authority for a permit, on terms to be set out in regulations made under the Act. The section does not confine itself to state bodies or aviation operators; it is drafted to capture any person carrying out these activities, which as a matter of ordinary reading includes private companies.

The Act defines meteorological services broadly, covering meteorological observation, data processing and archival, data exchange, the issuance of forecasts, alerts, advisories and warnings, the provision of climatological and environmental information, meteorological research, and climate projections. Aviation meteorological services are defined separately and cover en-route forecasts and warnings for flights, low-level significant weather charts, aerodrome meteorological information, aviation-related research and development, and significant meteorological information relevant to flight safety. Weather modification activities, a category that includes cloud seeding and similar interventions, are also expressly brought within the permit requirement.

The Penalty for Operating Without a Permit

Section 11 prohibits any person from engaging in meteorological observation, weather forecasting, or weather modification activities without a permit issued under the Act. A breach is made a criminal offence, carrying a fine not exceeding five million shillings, imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years, or both. This is a significant penalty by the standards of Kenyan regulatory statutes, and it applies regardless of whether the unpermitted activity caused any actual harm; the offence is defined by the absence of a permit, not by the quality or consequences of the forecast or observation produced.

Why This Matters Beyond Traditional Weather Services

The practical reach of this permit regime is broader than it might first appear, because commercial reliance on weather data and forecasting has expanded well beyond meteorological agencies and airlines. Agritech platforms that generate localised forecasts or rainfall predictions to advise farmers on planting and irrigation decisions are, on the face of the definition, providing weather forecasting activities. Insurtech businesses offering parametric weather insurance, where a payout is triggered by rainfall, drought, or temperature data rather than a conventional claims process, depend on meteorological observation and data processing that the Act treats as a regulated activity. Renewable energy developers assessing wind or solar resource potential at a site, and businesses providing that assessment as a service to others, are collecting and processing meteorological observations. Telecommunications providers that push weather alerts to subscribers, and any aviation-adjacent business handling flight-relevant weather information outside the state aviation authority itself, fall within the same broad definitions.

None of these businesses would historically have thought of themselves as operating in a licensed sector. Under the new Act, if their activities fall within the statutory definitions of meteorological observation, weather forecasting, or weather modification, they need to apply to the Authority for a permit or risk exposure to the section 11 penalty.

What Businesses Should Do Now

A business that generates, processes, or distributes weather-related data or forecasts as part of its product or service should review its activities against the Act’s definitions before regulations under section 10 are finalised and enforcement begins in earnest. Where a business’s activity plausibly falls within meteorological observation, weather forecasting, or weather modification, the safer course is to engage with the Authority early on what the permit application will require, rather than waiting to be identified as operating without one. Businesses relying on third-party weather data providers should also confirm that those providers are themselves appropriately permitted, since a supply chain built on an unpermitted data source carries its own regulatory risk.