Rains cause death, havoc

By Standard Team

At least 12 people were killed, 300 families displaced and 54,000 refugees endangered as heavy rains pounded various parts of the country.

Apart from the loss of life, the floods have submerged entire villages, washed away bridges, destroyed crops and livestock and made it difficult to get aid to victims still trapped.

And the worst of the rains is yet to come, according to the National Meteorological Centre at Dagoretti, Nairobi.

In the Coast Province alone, the victims are estimated at 200,000 — all marooned in ever surging waters.

In Nairobi, walls came tumbling down, fallen trees blocked roads and a clogged drainage system turned roads into rivers. Police had to step in to divert motorists from dangerously flooded roads.

National calamity surging out of control

Neima Temporal, the head of the UN refugee agency at Dadaab refugee camp, said humanitarian aid is not getting to those who need it most as the transport system is completely disabled.

Reports compiled by The Standard from across the country indicate a national calamity surging out of control leaving death and destruction in its wake.

n Nyanza Province, over 500 passengers were stranded along the Katito-Kendu Bay road after a bridge at Pap Onditi was washed away.

Commuters waited as H Young — a construction firm working on the Katito-Kendu Bay Road — made a diversion to create a temporary passage.

At the same time the UN announced 1.8 million people have been affected by the torrential rains which continue to pound parts of Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sudan.

Refugees in submerged camps

And the damage the rains have caused to infrastructure will require billions of shillings to repair.

According to the Roads ministry, Coast Province alone will require at least Sh1.7 billion to repair damaged roads and bridges.

In a statement signed by the ministry’s Public Relations Officer Richard Abura, the ministry announced that although repair work was under way, heavy resources would be required for the repairs.

Effects of calamity were being felt most by more than 54,000 refugees in submerged camps in North Eastern Province as the UN made frantic efforts to transfer them to safer camps.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Government continued emergency relief airlifts to the region where hundreds of families waded through water seeking higher ground.

The UNHCR gave regular updates of the situation and issued a warning of the rising crisis.

Kenyans warned about flood crisis

According to Mr Danson Nyaga of the Metrological Department, the heavy rains will not subside until the end of December.

Police Commissioner Maj-Gen Hussein Ali and Government Spokesman Dr Alfred Mutua both warned Kenyans about the flood crisis that continues to claim lives.

Ali issued a national alert on the floods and told Kenyans living in lowlands to quickly move to higher grounds. He advised motorists to avoid flood-prone sections of roads.

Mutua said evacuation of people marooned by floods intensified yesterday, with the Government pledging to airlift more food and medical supplies to refugee camps.

The situation echoed the assessment of five Cabinet ministers who last weekend visited affected parts of Kwale, Coast Province, and described the flooding as a national disaster.

Calls for declaration of a national disaster

Ministers Mr John Michuki, Mrs Charity Ngilu, Mr Morris Dzoro, Mr Njenga Karume and Prof Kivutha Kibwana said the crisis should be declared a national disaster.

Only the President can declare a calamity a national disaster.

In Nairobi, two people died following the heavy rains. Police said the first victim died when a wall collapsed and fell on him while three others sustained injuries and are admitted to the Kenyatta National Hospital. The incident took place in Gikomba area.

The second victim drowned in Kasarani area as he tried to wade through stagnant waters.

Outgoing Nairobi area police boss King’ori Mwangi said another man was rescued by the public as his car was being swept away by raging waters along Lusaka Road.

Three more people died in a road accident at Mtito Andei on Nairobi-Mombasa Highway after a bus they were travelling in crashed into a lorry, in an incident police said was caused by the rainy weather.

Helicopter dispatched to rescue farmers

Makueni Police Chief Mr Nyambu Mwakio said 23 others were admitted to the Makindu Sub-District Hospital in critical condition.

The took place at 6am during the early morning rain, which made the road slippery and visibility poor.

Three other people drowned on River Tana, pushing the death toll in the area to 13 in a week, as hopes of saving marooned farmers dwindled.

The latest victims drowned in raging waters after the rafts they had improvised to cross the floods to higher grounds capsized.

Tana River District Officer, Mr Kipsang Sigei, said a police helicopter had been dispatched to save more than 300 farmers marooned on the banks of River Tana.

At the Ifo refugee camp, three deaths were reported at the weekend and three children are still missing.

Vaccines to combat spread of disease

UNHCR said Ifo — the biggest of the Dadaab camps in Garissa District hosting some 54,000 refugees — was almost completely flooded by last Sunday.

Unicef and other aid agencies flew in vaccines and other supplies to combat the spread of disease as evacuation started.

"We’ve started relocation efforts by trucks, donkey carts and on foot to help thousands of people to drier ground," Ms Jennifer Pagonis, UNHCR spokesman said.

She said the only road linking Dadaab and Nairobi had been destroyed, cutting off more than 100,000 of the estimated 160,000 mainly Somali refugees in Dadaab.

In Keiyo District, District Commissioner Mr Mabeya Mogaka asked for choppers to evacuate the over 250 families marooned by floods.

One person has died and two primary schools shut down, he said.