Laikipia government has deployed machinery used by road contractors to create spillways for dams that are full and are at risk of bursting.
A county disaster response committee meeting was told that more than 31 are full and some had started leaking due to the ongoing heavy rains.
The meeting co- chaired by county commissioner Onesmus Kyatha and Deputy Governor Reuben Kamuri in Nanyuki town brought together all national and county government departments.
Water chief officer Samuel Lemanyishoe said that the area was staring at a disaster if the water in the dams was not controlled.
“All the dams, whether public or privately owned, are all full. We need to ensure that their spillways are functional to prevent their walls from collapsing to avert any calamity,” he said.
His Roads and Public Works counterpart Peter Macharia said the county has only two functional excavators that could not adequately respond to emergency cases.
“Our two excavators are not enough to open up spillways of all the dams on time bearing in mind that it's still raining heavily, that’s why it’s important we bring on board machinery from local road contractors to assist in the works,” he said.
The county commissioner said the dams posed the greatest risk to lives, and there's need to move fast to avert any disaster.
“As a committee we have to move very fast and ensure that their spillways are functional and also access the strength of the walls based on the water capacity,” Kyatha said.
He instructed the Kenya Urban Roads Authority and Kenya Rural Roads Authority to put all contractors working in the area on standby should their services and machinery be required.
The deputy governor told the meeting that the county was working closely with the national government to ensure that no lives were lost due to flooding in the area.
“As a county government we have instructed the chief officer for Finance to set aside money for disaster response so that we are not caught flat-footed should an unfortunate thing happen," Kamuri said.
Elijah Mbugua from the Agriculture department said acres of land have been swept away by the current floods, affecting maize, cabbages, onions, French beans, tomatoes, herbs, spices and wheat.
He, however, allayed fears that the flooding would lead to food shortage.
Beatrice Wachira from the Education Department said that 21 schools were flooded and 42 others had their pit latrines affected.
She said there was the risk of waterborne diseases in the affected schools due to the sunken latrines should learners resume. She called on speedy response to the disaster.
