Four people have been killed by floods in Kisumu, Deputy Governor Mathews Owili has said.
Owili said the victims include two women killed by flash floods in South West Nyakach and two men in North and West Nyakach.
Humphrey Joshua, 13, was on Thursday killed by a roaming hippopotamus at Sango Rotta beach in Nyakach subcounty following backflow of water due to increased levels in Lake Victoria.
Kisumu, he said, has been badly hit with floods with 7,196 households displaced to various camps and 1,579 more integrated within the communities.
Owili was receiving donations from Safaricom and the Red Cross Society for distribution to rescue camps in Muhoroni subcounty on Sunday. He said the flooding is the most severe the county has experienced since 1963.
More than 400 displaced families in Muhoroni received humanitarian assistance following the donation of non-food items by the Red Cross and Safaricom Foundation.
Each family received two blankets, two tarpaulins, two bar soaps, one kitchen set, 10 Aquatab tablets, a mosquito net per pregnant woman or child under two years old, and sanitary towels for women of reproductive age.
The county, he said, has also experienced serious destruction to infrastructure with about 380 kilometres of access roads valued at Sh418 million rendered impassable.
“Currently we have about 12 schools which are completely unusable should they reopen,” Owili added.
He noted that sanitation facilities and infrastructures such as toilets and boreholes have also been damaged.
This, he noted, has put the affected areas on the red zone alert for possible outbreaks of communicable diseases.
Owili said the county, in partnership with well-wishers, has tried to support the affected persons with both food and non-food items.
He commended giant telco Safaricom for giving the county a toll-free line and subsidised call rates for the setup of our Covid – 19 Call Centre at Maseno University.
