• Eight carcasses of cows were rescued while one was swept away by the heavily flowing river
•The incident occurred during heavy rains causing river Perkerra to break its banks
Two herd boys escaped alive, while nine cows died on Monday after a footbridge collapsed in Marigat, Baringo South, during a downpour.
The shoddily built bridge was completed in January and hadn't been officially opened. It connected 20 villages and farmers used it to take produce to the market.
The boys were driving 30 head of cattle to a grazing field across the flooded Perkerra River through the metallic footbridge.
“It seems the bridge had some loose bolts connected to both ends of the metal bars. So it collapsed because it could not sustain the heavy weight of the cows,” Long’ewan assistant chief Jacob Leiro said on Tuesday.
Leiro said eight carcasses were recovered, while one was swept away by the overflowing river.
“We thank God no human life was lost. Luckily, the children who got trapped in the collapsed bridge held onto the metal bars until they were rescued by local divers,” he said.
The owner of the cows, Moses Kachiki, said the collapse occurred during a heavy downpour that lasted for eight hours."
He said he was planning to go to Marigat auction to sell some cows to pay school fees before schools open next week, but all his plans were thwarted.
“I now don’t know where to get fees to send my two children to school,"Kachiki said.
He urged the Baringo government to urgently repair and rebuild makeshift bridges as the heavy rains are expected to continue.
Kachiki said the bridge connects more than 20 villages, such as Lorobil, El’Ngarwa, Nalepo, Mosuro, Lokumkum to the Perkerra irrigation scheme and Marigat town.
"People now cannot access a market to sell their farm produce and buy basic household items and foodstuffs," he said.
Vegetable farmer Salina Lanoi said she can no longer ferry her perishable produce to the market.
Resident Lesoite Jefferson said the bridge was constructed in January this year and wasn’t launched though it had already helped transport.
“If the rains persist, the running water will move heavy trees to block the flowing river. Then the blockage will end up channelling water to nearby villages, causing more floods” Lesoite said.
Earlier, Governor Stanley Kiptis warned residents in flood-prone lower areas to move to higher grounds to avoid disasters.
Deputy Governor Jacob Chepkwony in charge of disaster response said the department is underfunded and called upon humanitarian agencies like the Kenya Red Cross and World Vision to help.
(Edited by V. Graham)