Thousands displaced by floods

Freak floods last week have rendered thousands homeless, threatened health, disrupted studies, hampered transportation and slowed business activity in different parts of Kenya. Nyanza Province in western Kenya, has borne the brunt of the rains, which were not expected until March. Humanitarian sources working in Nyanza on Tuesday painted a grim picture of the situation, describing it as very serious. “In some areas everything was washed away and people are now depending on handouts from well-wishers,” a humanitarian source told IRIN. While the floods subsided on Monday, officials in the western town of Kisumu said the aftermath was “quite vivid”. “The grounds are still soggy, and those whose homes have been submerged have nowhere to return to.” According to figures given to IRIN on Monday by a government official in Kisumu, 8,470 people had been displaced by the floods. The official said they were living with relatives and food and medical assistance had been supplied. An NGO worker in Kisumu said on Tuesday however that further assistance was required and the current situation was “as if nobody has intervened”. The Kenya Red Cross (KRC) had moved in “but the area affected is quite big and it seems they have not reached most areas”, he added. He said that three schools helped by his organisation, Africa Now, were flooded and could not be accessed. Some of the victims last week told IRIN that they helplessly watched their property and livestock swept away but could do little to salvage them due to the strong currents. “We carried the little we could salvage on our heads and handcarts,” one person said. Political leaders in the province estimate that 10,000 families in the Lake Victoria basin have been displaced by the recent torrents, which the Meteorological Department said would continue until March. Regional leaders have sent out SOS appeals for emergency relief and medical supplies to the severely-hit areas of Nyando, Muhoroni, Nyatike, Nyakach, Rachuonyo, Migori and Kisumu on the lake shores. Heavily silted rivers, tributaries to the second largest freshwater lake in the world, burst their banks and flooded homes, crop fields, schools and markets in the Kano plains, leaving a trail of devastation and desolation, a legislator, Paul Orwa Otita, said in a statement. Roads to and from flooded areas were impassable and bridges partially washed away or covered, putting a halt to movements of vehicles and people to market places. Nyakach legislator, Peter Odoyo, told IRIN that “scantily clad” victims were sleeping in the open without cover from the cold and mosquitoes. Food was scarce as grain stores were among the property swept away by floods. Odoyo said that victims lived under threat of contracting water-borne diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, bilharzia and typhoid. “The threat of the epidemics are greater now that the floods seem to be subsiding,” he said. Some 14,000 people in the area were affected, he said. But Kisumu District Commissioner, Joshua Chepchieng dispelled fears of a disease outbreak, saying that medical personnel had been put on full alert. Elsewhere, 300 people at Moi Ndabi Settlement scheme in Naivasha, some 65 km west of Nairobi, have been displaced and an unknown number of livestock drowned in floods following last week’s downpours, Nakuru District Commissioner, James Ole Seriani announced. Nakuru town, 160 km west of Nairobi was flooded by overflowing drainage and sewerage networks, as were parts of Nairobi city, where seven people drowned as they attempted to wade across flooded roads.