The death toll from mudslides in Elgeyo Marakwet County has risen to 10, after more bodies were retrieved from the affected areas.
Interior CS Kipchumba Murkomen has ordered the deployment of helicopters to assist in the ongoing rescue operations.
The aircraft will airlift injured residents to hospitals in Eldoret.
Rescue teams are still combing villages in the Chesongoch area, where landslides were reported early today.
Area police boss Zablon Okoyo said that, so far, the bodies of about ten people have been recovered, while others remain unaccounted for.
Speaking via phone, Okoyo explained that heavy rains throughout the night caused parts of the upper region to collapse at around 2 a.m., sending mud sweeping through several homes.
He added that patients at Chesongoch Mission Hospital were evacuated after the facility was flooded and relocated to safer areas.
Currently, all transport activities in the region have been halted due to floods and landslides, and residents have been advised to avoid travel until conditions improve.
“We have many security and rescue teams working to ensure that residents receive the help they need,” Okoyo said.
Mudslides, also known as mudflows or landslides, are rapid movements of water-saturated soil, rocks, and debris down a slope.
They usually occur on steep hillsides or mountainous areas and can cause significant damage to homes, roads, and infrastructure.
Mudslides happen when the soil becomes unstable and cannot support its own weight.
This can be triggered by heavy or prolonged rainfall that saturates the soil, by loss of vegetation whose roots normally hold the soil in place, by earthquakes or volcanic activity that shake and loosen the ground, or by human activities such as construction, mining, or poor drainage that weaken slopes.
They are most likely to occur during or after heavy rains, during periods of rapid snowmelt when soil becomes saturated quickly, or following natural disasters that destabilise the ground. In essence, mudslides happen when steep, loose, or wet soil loses stability and moves downhill.
