Families urged to move as flood death toll rises

People living close to river banks and flood-prone areas have been urged to move to safer grounds as the death toll from the ongoing rains reached 26.

Special Programmes permanent secretary Ali Mohamed said the situation could get worse as more rivers continue to break their banks. The ministry in charge of coordinating disaster response has spent Sh50 million on relief supplies. The PS, however, dispelled fears, saying the government was fully prepared to handle the situation.

The meteorological department has said the rains will continue until the end of this month in most areas. More than 10,000 people in Loima, Turkana East, are being relocated after River Kerio changed its course.

Mr Mohamed said the river had last used the valley in 1967 and the change caught many off-guard. Five people died after they were swept away by raging floodwater in the same district following two days of heavy rainfall.

Three of the deaths were reported on Saturday and the other two on Sunday morning. Area district commissioner Elmi Shafi said more than 2,000 domestic animals had also died after they were swept away by floods. “The situation has been worsened by irrigation canals, which have burst their banks,” Mr Shafi said.

According to the Kenya Red Cross, more than 30,000 people have been displaced from their homes countrywide due to floods. In parts of Kerio Valley, many hectares of vegetables were on Sunday submerged following a heavy downpour that started last Friday.

At the same time, poll chaos victims in transit camps in the area have expressed fears of contracting contagious diseases due to poor hygiene following the onset of heavy rains. Also in Rift Valley, the Kenya Red Cross Society relocated families in the lowland areas of Rongai, Koibatek and Mogotio after floods killed five people at the weekend.

And in Laikipia West, Mr Raphael Karanja Wanjiru, 24, died after falling into a seasonal river along the Nyahururu-Rumuruti road. Reported by Peter Mwai, Peter Ng’etich, Barnabas Bii, Wanjiru Macharia, Hezron Njoroge, Lucas Barasa and James Kariuki