At least 42 people died Monday to burst the walls of a prey in the south of Kenya that razed hundreds of houses and vehiclesas the country grapples with the effects of weeks of strong rains and devastating floodsreported the police. The disaster occurred in the county of Nakurunorth of the capital, Nairobiwhere the walls of the dam Dark Tunnel Valleylocated in the hills of Kijabethey broke down early in the morning.
“We have recovered 42 corpses and many people are missing. It’s a disaster“said the police commander of the nearby city of Naivasha, Stephen Kiruiin statements collected by local media, stating that the deceased included 17 children. The tragedy hit especially hard in the town of Kamuchirinear the city of May Mahiu.
Destroyed infrastructure
More than a hundred people were rescued of the mud – although it is feared that there are more trapped– and transferred to Mai Mahiu hospitals by volunteers from the Red Cross and Nakuru County Emergency Services. According to the Red Cross on its X social network account, the flood waters “originated in a river close that overflowed“.
“I woke up submerged in the water and the walls of the house had been collapsed. My family and I were floating in the water,” declared one of those affected, William Lokai43 years old, to the local newspaper ‘The Standard’. Torrential rainfall has damaged numerous infrastructure throughout the territory nationalsuch as bridges and roads.
“I opened the roof of the house to rescue to my son of seven months and another of three years. Us we escape through the roof. My two neighbors’ houses were destroyed. Around twelve residents have been swept away by the water. They are dead,” Lokai added. The incident caused the court of the road main road that connects Nairobi with Mai Mahiu, full of rocks, mud and logs.
Delayed start of classes
The spokesperson of Government, Isaac Mwaurareported on Monday that at least 103 people have died since the end of last March by the long rainy season in Kenya, which has caused severe flooding and is expected to last until May. These figures, however, do not include those killed in the dam disaster. “Furthermore, the current number of displaced households is 28,484 with 185,297 people affected,” Mwaura said.
He Ministry of Education of Kenya postponed on Monday a week, until May 6, the start of the second quarter in the public schools of education primary and secondary due to heavy rains and floods.
The boy
In addition to Kenya, other countries in East africaincluding Tanzania, Burundi and the Republic Democratic Republic of the Congo, have also been negatively affected by the floods. The Prime Minister of Tanzania, Kassim Majaliwaraised last Thursday from 66 to 155 the number of people killed in the country so far in April due to the heavy rains and floods intensified by the meteorological phenomenon of The boy.
El Niño is a change in the atmospheric dynamics caused by the increase in temperature of the Pacific Ocean. These floods come after the worst drought on record in the Horn of Africa in the last four decades, a lack of water that left the neighboring Somalia on the brink of famine and with 6.6 million people in food insecurity acute, according to UN.
