2,500 families marooned as floods hit

What you need to know:

  • Many have been forced to relocate to higher ground as others sought accommodation from relatives and friends in neighbouring villages that have not been affected.
  • The Red Cross stated on its Twitter handle that 46 villages have been affected by the flooding and that it was conducting an assessment of the area.

More than 2,500 families in Tana Delta are marooned after Tana River burst its banks.

Many have been forced to relocate to higher ground as others sought accommodation from relatives and friends in neighbouring villages that have not been affected.

The residents from a reported 46 flooded villages appealed to the county government, through the Special Programmes Department, and humanitarian agencies for help.

A Member of the County Assembly meanwhile claimed that the Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) released spillage from Masinga and Kiambere dams before residents had moved out after it gave a notice to them to vacate the village.

The most affected areas are Konemasa and Chara locations, where residents were forced to move to higher ground after more than 10 villages — among them Mwanja, Odole, Samicha, Handaraku, Sogan and Bura Anani — were flooded.

The Red Cross stated on its Twitter handle that 46 villages have been affected by the flooding and that it was conducting an assessment of the area.

Kipini West MCA Musa Wario said scores of farmers were counting losses after floods washed away more than 1,000 acres of maize and water melon crops.

He said the flooding has also escalated a cholera outbreak that had hit the area in January, with three people reported dead last week as more than 10 others were treated in health centres.

“Pastoralists are also overwhelmed because they are now forced to graze their animals in flood water, which is a recipe for disease,” added Mr Wario.

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The MCA called on the county and national governments to provide humanitarian assistance to the displaced, saying the floods have exposed them to hunger.

On KenGen, he said: “KenGen has always done this to our people without providing any remedy and the result is deaths, destruction and displacement.”

Tana River Governor Hussein Dado, through his protocol officer Hassan Galgalo, called on KenGen to provide assistance to the flood victims.

He said perennial flooding has strained the county government, which has a small little budget to counter such disasters that are spread along the river, causing destruction and massive losses.

Mr Dado challenged the firm to implement flood mitigation projects through social corporate responsibility in the county, where a majority of homes have no electricity but continue to suffer from spillage of water from power generating dams.

Last month, KenGen issued a flood alert to the more than 150,000 people living downstream in Tana River and Garissa counties.

In a public notice, Mr Francis Kawa, the KenGen operations manager, Eastern Hydros, asked residents to take precautionary measures due to a spillage of Masinga and Kiambere dams after heavy rainfall upstream.

Such spillage has often led to the water level rising and the river breaking its banks, causing flooding and displacement of people from their homesteads, particularly in lower Tana Delta.