Families flee after floods wreak homes in Nakuru's Kaptembwa

More than 100 families have fled their homes in Kaptembwa area of Nakuru Town West Subcounty after flash floods aused deep gullies, mudslides and sink holes.

The worst affected were more than two residential plots adjacent to the Rift Valley Institute of Science and Technology (RVIST).

The residents who did not have the financial muscle to shift houses are now camping at a local church while others relocated to different estates.

The gullies and sink holes occurred on Wednesday night following a heavy downpour upstream in Menengai, London, Kiamunyi and Kabarak.

Residents said a woman and her two children escaped death by a whisker after her house partially sank and developed huge cracks on the floor.

Her house and 50 others were near an open drainage that was left incomplete following a land dispute with a neighbouring large scale dairy farm.

A landlord, Reuben Otete, claimed that efforts by residents to have the open drainage cemented and extended to Lake Nakuru National Park  were fruitless.

"More households will be affected as the rains continue pounding, this problem could have been averted if the drainage was well constructed and extended to the park," he said.

Otete appealed to area MP Samuel Arama to talk to the large scale dairy farm owner and get an agreement for the open drainage to run through his farm.

Nakuru Town West is among areas prone to mudslides, flash floods and sink holes because of Nakuru's topographic and geological nature.

Geologists say the newest city in the country sits on a massive layer of highly porous volcanic ash that is supported by an equally weak rock.

They say the rock is a web of cavities and fissures and that's why Nakuru ground shakes whenever a heavy truck or tain passes through.

Janet Wanyama said she will spend Thursday night in the cold together with her three children who are all below 10 years of age.

"My twin girls are hardly six and it is traumatising to imagine us spending here in the cold without food or tents," she said.

Wanyama appealed to the County Government of Nakuru and the national government to give the affected families humanitarian aid.

"We have been neglected since last night, no government official or political leader has come to be in solidarity with us," she said.

She also appealed to well-wishers and civil organisations to visit the affected families in Kaptembwa and give them support.