Baringo Education executive Clement Lomaring'oria had a brush with death when his vehicle submerged in floodwaters on Thursday night.
He was driving his Toyota Prado along the flooded Nakuru-Marigat-Kapedo highway near Loruk trading centre when the vehicle sank.
Lake Baringo's water level has risen over the last few days and flooded surrounding areas as far as seven kilometres inland.
“I didn’t know the water levels had risen that high, I just found myself sinking,” Lomaring'oria told the Star on the phone on Friday.
The CEC said he broke one of the car windows and swam to the surface. It took him 10 minutes to get to the surface, he said.
He was heading home to Parpello, Tiaty subcounty, when the 8pm accident took place.
Lomaring'oria said an overturned oil tanker had blocked the all-weather diversion.
It took 30 divers three hours to pull his vehicle out of the water on Friday.
Baringo North police commander Fredrick Odinga urged road users to be careful while driving through the flooded highway.
“The lake water is surging day and night,” he said.
Odinga urged the county government to ensure the new fairly steep diversion is passable.
But Roads executive Elijah Koros said that is the responsibility of the Kenya National Highways Authority.
“I don’t see how we come in as a county government,” he said.
Lake Baringo has overflown as a result of heavy rains that continue to pound the area since April.
More than 30,000 people have been displaced. Business premises and tourism sites have been affected.
Last week Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa visited the lake and attributed the rising water level to climate change.
“We will do everything possible as the national government to help the victims,” he said.
Governor Stanley Kiptis says the rising waters is the worst phenomenon to have even happened in the lake since time immemorial.
He has urged well-wishers to assist the victims and carry out research.
Edited by Josephine M. Mayuya
