Crisis worsens as 700 Mombasa families are driven out of homes

More than 700 families have been rendered homeless across Mombasa County as the floods crisis worsened.

A majority of the families - about 500 - are in Likoni, where six villages: Migombani, Jamvi la Wageni, Kiwerera II, Harambee, Mwatsalafuni and Dimbwini have been marooned by flood waters, forcing residents to spend their nights in the cold.

The floods, triggered by week-long heavy rains, left a heavy trail of destruction on houses and also swept away household items such as utensils, beddings and clothes.

The floods have also exposed more residents to cholera after water supplies got contaminated.

The Kenya Red Cross officer in charge of the county, Mr Soud Kinda, said 700 families had been displaced by floods.

“However, the reports we are receiving indicate that the number is much much higher,” he said at a media briefing by the Mombasa County Disaster Management Committee in Tudor.

The relief agency had ordered more supplies of medicine and non-food items such as beddings and utensils from Nairobi.

“The consignment is already on the way down here,” he said.

Health Executive Binti Omar said 150 people had so far been diagnosed with cholera out of whom 25 cases had been confirmed.

She, however, said that dispensaries and hospitals had been supplied with adequate drugs to counter water-borne diseases.

She described the situation as very serious and urged residents to use boiled or treated water.

The committee’s chairman, Mr Francis Thoya, said four primary schools in Kisauni would not open today as their compounds and buildings are flooded.

He, however, ruled out compensation for the victims.

“The county will not compensate anyone. Whom are we compensating? They bought land in the wrong places and constructed buildings that are now blocking water from flowing,” he said, while supervising the demolition of two perimeter walls that were blocking a waterway in Kiembeni.

Yesterday, several residential neighbourhoods in Likoni and across the county remained inaccessible after the roads were submerged. A number of vehicles remained stuck in flooded sections of the road and in thick mud.

Likoni MP Masoud Mwahima, who addressed residents at Jamvi la Wageni Primary School, announced that Sh40 million from the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) would be spent in the next financial year to build a drainage system in the area.

He donated Sh15,000 to buy food for the victims and said that a 12-member committee had been formed to coordinate relief efforts in the area

“We are in charge and I ask you not to panic. We will use our local resources to help all the affected residents, but a lasting solution is to build a drainage system from this area,” said Mr Mwahima.