A search for no less than 91 individuals who have disappeared due to intense flooding across Kenya is currently underway, as reported by the country’s Home Affairs department. Following a mudslide and flash floods that occurred in central Kenya’s Mai Mahiu town on Monday morning, casualties have tragically reached at least 46. This comes as a one person increase from the prior death count.
Survivors from Mai Mahiu recalled a powerful deluge that resulted in the destruction and displacement of homes, automobiles, and railway tracks. Anne Gachie, a local inhabitant, shared her terrifying experience of the water forcefully entering her house through her open door and flooding her kitchen. Her husband was able to escape just in time, but the water’s impact swept her daughters away from their home.
According to the Home Affairs department, a further 53 individuals from Mai Mahiu are allegedly missing. However, the Red Cross in Kenya has received reports of 76 individuals missing. On a larger scale, a minimum of 169 individuals have lost their lives due to the extensive rainfall and subsequent floods that have ravaged Kenya since the previous month. This situation has resulted in more than 185,000 people having to abandon their residences, as per the government’s data.
Intense monsoons in Tanzania and Burundi have led to the displacement of several hundreds of thousands of individuals, in addition to causing numerous fatalities. Climate scientists attribute these extreme weather conditions to the global shifts in climate, claiming that it leads to more frequent and severe weather events.
In Garissa county of East Africa, four fatalities were reported over the weekend after the capsizing of a boat, while 23 others were rescued from the flood-ridden area. This county has reported 16 missing persons, says the Home Affairs department. Flooding incited by the El Nino weather system resulted in at least 120 fatalities in Kenya towards the end of the previous year, a disaster which occurred following the harshest drought East Africa had experienced in many decades.