Weather in Kakamega in May

A good month. May is a solid month to be in Kakamega. You should expect rain on 28 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

May ranks 4 of 12 in Kakamega: past the worst of the year but short of January, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 28 of the month's 31 days, 9 of them heavy. At that frequency a wet-weather backup is not a contingency, it is the itinerary — book the indoor things first and treat the clear days as the bonus. Nothing specialised needed — this is the month you pack for the trip rather than for the weather.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: it never really gets hot: not one day in an average May reaches 30 °C. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest May day reached 29.9 °C and the coldest night fell to 13.6 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 52 mm — roughly 20% of the month's rain in one day.

May is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest May on record still delivered 524 mm against 126 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 261 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 3.6 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 80%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How May sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 27.4 °C in April, 25.5 here, 24.3 in June. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain has already shifted: 5 days more than April had.

Daylight in May

Kakamega sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 12.1 hours in May, against a range of just 0 hours across the whole calendar. Sunrise and sunset land at roughly the same time whenever you come.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 14.9 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights. At 1563 m, altitude is doing as much work here as latitude: thinner air means fierce sun by day and heat that leaves the moment it sets.

How busy it gets

Quiet. Few other visitors, cheaper rooms, and a real chance some seasonal operators are shut.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

May in Kakamega versus nearby

If Kakamega is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Nakuru is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 5 days less rain. Nairobi is a better bet in May — within a degree on temperature, 13 days less rain.

So: May works, with January the better month by 16 points if the dates can move. If they cannot, nothing here should stop you booking.

Every month in Kakamega

See all twelve months in Kakamega, or where else to go in May.