Hundreds homeless as flash floods hit western Kenya

Hundreds of people have been left without shelter in western Kenya after flash floods caused by torrential rains destroyed their homes over the weekend, relief officials said on Monday. A total of 900 people in Homa Bay and Kisumu districts were homeless after several rivers breached their banks and flooded the plains near the shores of Lake Victora, Anthony Mwangi, spokesman for the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), told IRIN. Flooding also had wreaked havoc in Nyando, Rachuonyo, Migori and Nyatike districts, where many homes had been submerged in raging water from the Oluch River. It was not immediately clear, however, how many people were affected in the four districts. "We have volunteers who are constantly doing assessment and warning people to move to high ground," said Mwangi. He said that the KRCS had distributed non-food items, including shelter material, blankets and water containers to 100 affected families in Homa Bay and 50 others in Kisumu. No human casualties were reported, but the floods killed an unknown number of cows, sheep, goats and chickens. An official of the National Disaster Operation Centre told IRIN that an estimated 100 ha of land planted with maize and sorghum had been inundated following heavy rains that lashed western Kenya on Saturday and Sunday. Several bridges in the area were washed away, he added. In early May, a boy was killed and an estimated 25,000 people, most of whom were Somali refugees, were displaced when torrential rains hit Dadaab refugee camp in northeastern Kenya.