Murang’a residents have been warned to watch for falt lines that may signify landslides.
Murang’a director of meteorology Paul Murage says the county is damaged by landslides every rainy season and that residents living in hilly areas need to be alert.
He asked residents to report freshwater springing up in their farms, especially where no rivers are nearby.
Unusual cracks in land and roads are also signs of earth movements, he said.
Murage said heavy rains have saturated the soil. Much of the land is heavily cultivated and there are no deep roots to hold the soil.
Roads have also been undermined, especially the Kaharati-Kangari road which has started crumbling, Gitugi-Kiria-ini road which is under construction and the Nyoka Nyoka road that crisscrosses the county from Kangema to Kandara.
“Motorists should be extra careful as some of them have developed cracks while others are getting mudslides,” he said.
Meanwhile, as residents of Kimandi village in Gatanga subcounty are living in fear after a mudslide hit a farm, sweeping away tea bushes.
It also swept away a pit latrine.
The entire village has now developed cracks. Residents have blamed Gatanga Water Company for failing to repair a pipe that burst last week, despite frantic calls.
They said water flowing from the pipe weakened the soil, causing the mudslide when it rained.
Resident John Kibe said they tried to dig a trench to channel the water away from their farms but it did not work.
“When we called the water company, they did not respond,” he said.
The landslide blocked a nearby river that has started swelling and is "another disaster waiting to happen", he added.
The villagers are calling for government help, fearing that more landslides may occur from the fault lines.
“Is the government waiting for someone to die so that we can get help?” Kibe asked.
Last year, the county and national governments in partnership with the Kenya Red Cross resettled more than 300 families displaced by landslides and earth movements.
The disastrous long rains left five people dead in Murang'a, while hundreds of others moved from their homes after they became uninhabitable.
Officials from the department of geology were dispatched to establish the extent of the damage caused by cracks and landslides and help map areas that are safe for house construction.
