Emergency plan to aid flood victims

The Kenyan government and humanitarian agencies have embarked on an emergency plan to aid victims of floods which have so far killed 28 people and displaced over a million people. Vice-President Michael Wamalwa on Monday announced that the government had set up a special fund to assist flood victims. And an assessment team from the government, UN agencies and NGOs has gone to affected areas, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Tuesday. The floods, caused by torrential rain, have swept away many homes, submerged schools, destroyed crops and cut off many parts of the country. The areas most affected include the flood-prone Nyanza and Western Kenya provinces, as well as the some districts in Eastern and North-Eastern provinces. Thousands of Somali refugees at Dadaab camp, in northeastern Kenya, have also been affected by the floods. In Nairobi, the raging waters have caused landslides and burst a major dam supplying water to the city. City council officials said about a million residents of Nairobi would go without water for about two weeks as a result. The Kenya Meteorology Department said it expected the heavy rains to persist until about the end of May. Aid agencies have expressed concern over the possible outbreak of waterborne diseases such as malaria and cholera.