Sh4.5 billion to be spent on areas devastated by floods

The government on Tuesday approved the spending of Sh4.5 billion to deal with the floods currently ravaging the country.

Of this amount, Sh1.5 billion will be reallocated from existing drought, security and Kazi Kwa Vijana (jobs for youth) provisions while Treasury is to look for the balance.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who chaired a Cabinet committee meeting on the El Nino floods at the Treasury on Monday, asked the Ministry of Finance to move with speed and make the funds available to line ministries to alleviate suffering. He said the operation must begin this week and another meeting will take place next week for update on progress.

The money will be used for resettlement of about 60,000 people, provision of food and non-food items, repair of in-takes and river crossings and provision of water bowsers, tanks and treatment chemicals. The money will also be used to repair damaged roads and for health and nutrition services, among other areas.

The PM asked the officers involved in the operation to be proactive and accountable. He said the rains are likely to continue till month-end and asked officers to plan beyond the current rains and the areas affected.

Ministries taking part in the operation includes Water, Roads, Health Services and Public Health, Defence, Youth Affairs and Sports, Provincial Administration, Special Programmes, Local Government, Regional Development Authorities, Agriculture, Northern Kenya and other Arid Areas and Forestry and Wildlife.

Meanwhile, an eight-year-old child drowned while playing with his friends at Ngano area in Ol Jororok on Monday. Nyandarua police chief Jasper Ombati said the boy slipped and fell into a dam. It took police and local residents several hours to recover the body. Mr Ombati at the same time said the body of a middle aged man was found at Njabini shopping centre, a few metres from the local police station.

In Taveta, one person was confirmed dead and 14,000 others displaced by floods over the weekend. District Commissioner Hirbae Nkaduda said hundreds of houses were destroyed following rains that have pounded the slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania since Friday.

The rains took the residents by surprise after a long dry weather spell and destroyed roads. Livestock have also been swept away by the floods that has hardly affected Marodo, Kimorigo Ngutini and kimala among other villages.

Others displaced

Mr Nkaduda said flooding started on Friday last week. Residents are fearing for their health saying the stagnant water could cause a disease outbreak. The DC said public health officials had been put on high alert and had started treating drinking water and spraying pesticides on stagnant water.

The district disaster management team had identified safer areas in Eldoro and Jipe settlements scheme and Kimala. Government efforts to evacuate the affected people, he said, have been hampered by resistance from the villagers who fear their properties could be stolen or vandalised.