Lives lost, property destroyed, hundreds of families displaced, is what occurred after just two days of heavy downpour in the coastal city of Mombasa.
Other coastal counties like Kilifi, Kwale and Taita Taveta have also experienced floods, leading to displacements, impassible roads, buildings caving in, bridges being swept away, loss of property and even deaths.
After 48 hours of heavy rains on Monday and Tuesday, some 1,600 people across the six subcounties of Mombasa had been affected by the floods.
At least nine people were reported dead in Mombasa county alone. Eight died after perimeter walls collapsed on their building and the ninth body was found afloat under the Nyali Bridge.
Five other people died in Kwale county after they were swept away by rains. And in a more tragic situation, a cousin to four of the children who died in Mombasa after a wall caved in on them was electrocuted on Thursday in Rabai and died.
POOR PLANNING
A blame game followed as to who is responsible for the poor drainage, the floods, the poor physical planning, the stalling ferries at the Likoni crossing channel and the deaths.
Jubilee politicians accused Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho of poor planning on the city and rampant corruption, leading to the illegal mushrooming of structures.
Environmental experts say the floods are due to the structures that have been built on the water ways, wetlands and abandoned quarry.
In Junda, Mishomoroni in Kisauni constituency, over 100 families were displaced after their homes, built in an abandoned quarry, were completely submerged in the rainy waters.
Jubilee governor hopeful Suleiman Shahbal and his running mate Ananiah Mwaboza say Joho is to blame for the illegal structures.
“We cannot blame the wananchi for building houses on water ways, wet lands or quarries. This is due to rampant corruption at the county government offices in charge of physical planning,” Mwaboza said.
Shahbal faulted the Joho-led administration for accusing President Uhuru Kenyatta of riding on donor-funded projects when he came to commission a storm water drainage system in Bamburi in January.
He said Joho should have created a good rapport with the national government to have the Mombasa drainage system fixed. The drainage and garbage menace in Mombasa have been a headache to Joho.
“This is why the President was here (Mombasa) some few months ago to launch a storm water drainage system and some people talked bad about it,” Shahbal said.
The Mombasa government has reacted by starting to demolish illegal structures on water ways, donating bedding and foodstuff to displaced families and moving them to safer grounds.
“We want to clear illegal structures that are responsible for flooding in most parts of the county,” Joho said.
The governor has been on the spotlight for various reasons since 2013. If it is not poor drainage, it is garbage. If not fake degree allegations, it is a battle with the Kenya Revenue Authority over alleged tax evasion.
Joho has maintained that he is being targeted by Jubilee government for being a severe critic of UhuRuto administration.
In response to the Mombasa floods menace, Joho has been distributing foodstuff, bedding and medical assistance to all affected families.
SAND HARVESTING
On Thursday, Lands executive Anthony Njaramba distributed food, mattresses and blankets to the affected families of Junda in Mishomoroni, Kisauni.
In Junda, illegal sand harvesting has been ongoing and people have been building houses in abandoned quarries, putting their lives at risk whenever it rains heavily.
On his way to Junda, Njaramba found some three lorries harvesting illegal sand by the banks of the seasonal rivers. He ordered the confiscation of the vehicles and arrest of the driver and the turn-boy.
“We are being blamed for the floods, but you can all see that these people are the ones responsible for the flood menace by harvesting sand illegally in places that eventually become quarries,” he said.
He urged the locals to report the unscrupulous businessmen who come to the area to harvest sand.
A village elder was found putting up a structure in the wetland in Junda.
“It is embarrassing that a leader can be doing such things,” Njaramba said as he order the structure's demolition under the watchful eye of inspectorate officers.
The Likoni crossing channel was not spared by the overflooding, leading to the withdrawal of two ferries and suspension of ferrying of motor vehicles.
KFS management and the Mombasa county commissioner’s office blamed the illegal construction of structures along the ocean that have altered the natural flow of seasonal rivers into the ocean, affecting the currents of the Indian Ocean.
Two ferries, MV Nyayo and MV Kilindini, were withdrawn as they could not stand the changes of the ocean current after the overflooding.
KFS managing director Bakari Gowa said they also had to suspend the ferrying of vehicles at the channel, leading to over Sh1.2 million losses in two days.
The ferry withdrawal also led to chaos at the Likoni crossing channel following the heavy human traffic.
“The investors have channelled water paths into the ocean from different directions. This is one of the consequences of changing natural currents of ocean water," Gowa said.
County commissioner Evans Achoki said they have already started earmarking structures that have been built on water ways for demolition.
KFS ferries at least 6,000 vehicles and 300,000 people each day.
WETLAND INVASION
Benson Wemali, an environmental expert working with an environmental NGO, Active Environmental Team, said due to population pressure, people have invaded and settled in wetlands and abandoned quarries.
On February 2 last year, Nema Mombasa senior marine officer Joseph Kamula defined wetlands as land that is covered with water partly or for the whole year.
“So long as a place is occupied by water either permanently or on temporary basis and it’s depth is of a maximum of minus six meters, it is qualifies to be a wetland,” he said.
Kamula spoke during World Wetlands Day, which honours the signing of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971.
Wemali said areas like Junda, Mshomoroni, Bombolulu, Kiembeni and Mwakirunge are wetlands that are not fit for human settlement.
“Because of laxity of government agencies, starting with the Mombasa county, Nema, and physical planners, we might continue to witness more deaths and disaster,” he said.
“These agencies need to map out the wetland areas and ensure that nobody ever constructs anything in those areas. They are not supposed to allow people to live in these areas.”
Wemali urged the county government to make a bold decision to evict the illegal settlers from the wetlands.
“It may be costly both financially and politically, but the county and the national government must work together in this and show they care more about the lives of Kenyans than money or votes,” he said.
Some of the wetland areas were uninhabited as late as 1990, but due to the population pressure, people encroached on the wetlands gradually, Wemali said.
“Population pressure is there all over the world, but we cannot use that excuse to turn a blind eye on such disasters in waiting,” Wemali says.
FLOOD-PRONE AREAS
County director of environment Stephen Wambua said some areas in especially Mombasa North are prone to flooding.
“The geology and geophysical nature of areas in Mombasa North make the zone prone to waterlogging and, therefore, flooding during heavy rains,” he said.
Wambua said residents are partly to blame, as they keep littering the areas, blocking some of the existing storm water drains.
The very nature of the storm water drainage system in Mombasa is inadequate, he said, a situation worsened by human activities that clog the few existing systems.
President Uhuru Kenyatta in January launched the Mombasa Storm Water Drainage Improvement Project Phase 2 in Bamburi, Kisauni constituency.
On Tuesday, Joho said the system cost more than Sh2 billion but only covers Kisauni area basically.
He said the county will need more than Sh6 billion to redo its drainage system, money that is not readily available.
However, the county has and will increasingly be allocating more funds to infrastructure after improved revenue collection, which now stands at Sh3 billion annually.
Last year, Kamula said wetlands have faced a lot of problems, including land reclamation, which is eating up a bigger part of the areas in Kenya.
“The problems include people changing wetlands to farming areas, pollution and overusing resources in wetlands,” he said.
A big chunk of the Indian Ocean has been and continues to be reclaimed at Kibarani.
Nema came up with the Wetland Policy that was passed by Parliament in December 2015 to provide a guideline for the protection of wetland areas.
However, Wemali said the policy is rarely implemented.