Murang'a landslide victims stranded after order to vacate school

Fifteen families that were displaced by landslides in Murang'a have appealed for help after they were asked to vacate a school in which they were camping.

The families were camping at Kahatia Primary School in Kiharu. They have been asked to seek alternative accommodation after schools re-opened on Monday.

The families left their homes after their farms started sinking due to earth movements following heavy rains.

They say they do not have the money to rent houses in the nearby Kahatia trading centre and appealed to the government to resettle them.

They said their homes have been rendered inhabitable. They asked the government to reclaim the farms.

James Mbogo said they were doing casual jobs with meagre earnings that can even barely feed their families.

He said the county government has given food to them only once since they moved into camp last year. 

“We have however been receiving food from well-wishers but we are suffering and cannot go back to our farms which have been turned into gulleys,” Mbogo said.

He said their farms have numerous springs that did not exist before.

Janet Nyambura, 80, said life had become extremely difficult because she no longer had the strength for casual jobs.

Nyambura said farming is all she has done for the better part of her life and that she is disoriented without her farm.

“If the government does not show me where I can settle, I will go back to my farm because I cannot afford to pay rent,” she said.

"The faster we are relocated, the faster we will be able to resume our normal lives and become self-dependent."

Their homes developed cracks soon after the onset of the short rains in October last year and they were advised to vacate.

edited by p.o

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