Focus on the national flooding emergency

The number of people displaced by recent flooding in Kenya is now estimated to be up to 60,000, while over 175,000 have been negatively affected, in the worst floods to hit the country since the El-Nino phenomenon in 1998, according to humanitarian sources in the capital, Nairobi.

The latest area to be badly hit is Tana River District in the east, where some 27,000 people have been affected and an as yet unknown number displaced after the Tana river burst its banks in some parts, and dams along its length had to release large volumes of excess water.

Although the number of people displaced in Tana River District and neighbouring Ijara is not yet known, the flooding is not on the scale of that which hit the west and southwest last week, according to aid officials.

The flooding in the east comes on top of serious flooding in the Lake Victoria basin to the west of Kenya, where floodwaters are now much reduced. However, more heavy rains may still occur as the long seasonal runs traditionally run from April to June, according to an update from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) earlier this month. Areas downstream of large rivers continue to be at risk, while landslides may occur in hilly areas.

Over 150,000 people were reported to be affected by the earlier flooding in western, southwestern and central Kenya, which was worst in the districts of Kisumu, Nyando, Migori and Busia, according to OCHA.

There has been localised flooding, on a lesser scale but sometimes serious, in Central and Coast provinces, and in the eastern and northeastern pastoral districts of Mandera, Wajir and Garissa.

The number of people displaced from their homes by the flooding is estimated at a maximum of 60,000 countrywide, contrary to local media reports, which have tended to confuse affected populations with people displaced, aid officials told IRIN on Wednesday.

In eastern Kenya, the flooding has particularly affected Tana River District, but has also hit Malindi and Garissa, as the Kenyan authorities wait to see whether the rain that caused it will ease in the coming days or worsen the situation further, according to local media reports.

Reports indicate that homes and livestock belonging to Orma pastoralists have been destroyed after the flooding of low-lying pastures beside the Tana River, according to the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

Very heavy rain had also been recorded in Lamu District in recent days, though there was as yet no indication of a flooding emergency, a UN official told IRIN.

The situation in Tana River, caused by torrential rains around Mt Kenya, which feeds Kenya's largest river, would need the attention of the international community if the rains - expected to subside - continued over the next few days, the East African newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing Bonaventure Wendo, Director of the National Disasters Operations Centre.

The NGOs Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and Caritas are due to conduct a detailed health needs assessment in Tana River in the coming days, but there was no doubting the urgent needs for food and non-food relief items, Abbas Gullet, Secretary-General of the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), told IRIN on Tuesday. The Society is chairing the Sudden Onset Disaster Committee, a task force comprising government officials, NGOs and international agencies.

The Kenyan government was currently coping with the emergency, which was adjudged to be within its capacity to respond with appropriate assistance, humanitarian sources told IRIN.

Nationwide, "the loss of household property and livestock is still to be evaluated", according to the IFRC, but "there is a big concern about the long-term impact of the floods - especially on the food security and health of the populations whose crops have been destroyed and are now exposed to malaria and waterborne diseases".

Since the 2002 long rains started in most areas during the second week of April, rainfall has been unusually heavy in many parts of the country, causing serious humanitarian concerns. In addition to deaths, there has been the destruction of crops and houses, and the disruption of economic and social activity, including education.

Throughout the flood-affected areas, wells and latrines have been submerged, resulting in a shortage of safe water for drinking and cooking and increasing risk of an outbreak of waterborne and mosquito-borne diseases. In Nyando, more than elsewhere, there is the fear of an outbreak of cholera or typhoid, according to the Federation.

Excessive rains since April had destroyed infrastructure, rendered key roads impassable and hampered logistics for humanitarian operations (including the continuing, but reducing, emergency food relief operation for the victims of drought over the past three years), NGO sources added.

"The need for relief goods is still acute, and there is growing concern over the long-term impact of the disaster," the IFRC stated on Tuesday.

The Red Cross movement, one of the Kenyan government's key partners in tackling the flood emergency, on 10 May launched an appeal for 1.7 million Swiss francs (about US $1.1 million) to assist over 125,000 people for three months.

On Tuesday, the IFRC was anxious that KRCS stocks were running dry, a $31,700 allocation from the Federation's disaster relief emergency fund had been spent and, to date, no donor pledges had been received to mitigate the flooding crisis. Only in-kind contributions had been received from the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and some Kenyan companies, it added.

The government of Kenya is currently covering food aid, and has mandated district authorities to report on the impact of the floods and the immediate intervention requirements, the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) reported on Monday.

In areas newly hit by flooding - such as Tana River - the immediate needs were for jerry cans, mosquito nets, medical kits and water purification tablets (as well as food), according to the IFRC; where flood waters are subsiding, the needs are changing to food aid, seeds and tools, adequate shelter and infrastructural rehabilitation.

Rainfall well above normal levels has been reported in Kenya - field stations recording over 250 mm of rainfall in less than four days in the northeast - as well as in southern Somalia and southeastern Sudan, according to an inter-agency monthly food security update for the Greater Horn of Africa released on Monday.

It suggested that near- to above-normal rainfall in May would increase the prospects for good crop yields and sustained pastoralists' recovery generally, but also that excessive rains in certain areas could reverse expected gains in terms of food security.

May is a crucial month for farmers in Kenya, as in the Greater Horn generally, with crops requiring significant - but not excessive - moisture, and pastoralists and agro-pastoralists depending on recharged water sources and pasture rejuvenation.

There is believed to be a good likelihood of an El-Nino type event (of a type which caused widespread flooding in Kenya, as in eastern Africa generally, in 1997-98) this year, because of the warming of sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, though there is as yet no evidence of such a global anomaly.

In terms of food security, there was a need to monitor the flooding closely in all districts with a view to providing short-term assistance - such as food, shelter and other relief supplies - and longer-term recovery programmes, humanitarian sources told IRIN.

Despite widespread heavy rain, parts of southeastern Kenya have experienced below-normal rainfall and this could lead to crop and livestock production losses in agro-pastoral areas, such as in Kajiado District, according to Monday's food security update.

Notwithstanding the floods, the report called for constant monitoring of pasture, water and livestock conditions in areas with depleted pasture conditions, including Kajiado (and the Borena area of Ethiopia), in which, it said, "forage conditions have reached an alert stage."