Heavy rains are wreaking havoc across Kenya barely a year after a drought ravaged the country. The losses arising from the two disasters that have plagued the nation for many decades are colossal.
The worst floods were the El Nino rains of 1997-98, which displaced 1.5 million people. Drought, on the other hand, hit hardest in 2011, leaving 3.5 million people affected by famine.
The irony in these disasters is that the country never seems prepared. There are never enough water reserves when drought hits, and drainage systems are easily overrun when it floods.
In the latest salvo by Mother Nature, roads have been rendered impassable and tens of vehicles swept away as raging floods sweep through major roads, including Mai Mahiu road-Narok, Kapenguria-Turkana road and Wajir-Mandera road.
At least 15 people are reported to have drowned and died in the last one month, following the deluge.
Three women and a baby were, in recent weeks, swept away by the floods at Arsin village in Samburu North.
Area Kenya Red Cross Society coordinator Maurice Onyango says the floodwaters swept through homes in lower areas of the county.
Barely a week later, six people died in Kitui while another died in Mai Mahiu, following the raging floods.
TRANSPORT PARALYSED
The torrential rains have made Turkana almost inaccessible after Turkwel, Kalemorok and Kawalase rivers burst their banks, blocking routes to Lodwar, Lokichogio and South Sudan.
North KRCS coordinator Nicholas Kemboi says floodwaters have paralysed transport, hindering humanitarian work in the North Rift county.
“The floods have affected a bigger part of the North Rift. We are assessing the situation,” Kemboi says.
Esther Kathure, a fruit vendor in Lodwar, says: “The rains have brought misfortunes. It has been difficult for me to get fruits from Kitale. Business has come to a standstill because Kainuk Bridge is impassable. I will be rendered a beggar if the rains continues.”
At the neighbouring Marsabit county, a yet-to-be established number of villages are marooned by the floods. In one incident, four members of a family were washed away by the floods.
The distraught families of the victims — namely Baryo Dasanach, 42, and her children Lochuma Yierat, three, Galte Morto, four, and Moroto Lochuma, five — began a frantic search for their missing relatives.Three days passed and hopes of getting them alive diminished.
Marsabit county police commander Bernard Kogo said: “Rescue efforts have been hampered by heavy floods that swept through the area during the night. A chopper has been deployed to establish if more people were swept by the floods.”
The heavy rains pounding the area started barely a month after a long, ravaging drought in the area.
Authorities reported that several animals cannot be traced as the unexpected rains continued to occasion deadly floods.
In November 2017, a couple died after floods swept away a couple at Olom, North-Horr.
Barille Boru, a resident, says bodies of the couple were discovered at the Chalbi desert after days of search efforts by the county government and humanitarian agencies.
“The couple was among eight people who drowned during the heavy rains. The others survived. It was difficult for residents to rescue the couple,” Boru said.
University of Eldoret environment lecturer Christopher Saina blames the disastrous effects of flooding on failure by some Kenyans to heed to warnings by the meteorological department, Nema and the National Disaster Management Authority.
“Some people erect buildings in flood-prone areas against recommendations by state authorities,” Saina says. He says county governments fail to unclog drainage systems in towns during the dry season.
“We have a culture of responding to disasters when they happen. County governments unclog tunnels when rains have started and floods have wreaked havoc,” the don says, adding: “We need to invest in diversion of water to safe areas.”
Saina says sand dams should be built in lowlands to reduce flooding and enable locals to use the harvested water during the dry season.
RECURRENT DROUGHT
A harsh drought ravaged ASAL areas of Northern Kenya and the coast during a similar period in 2017. Unicef reported in 2017 that 3.4 million people were facing starvation in the country following a drought that ravaged the country in the year.
The previous year, drought left over 2.7 million people facing starvation.
The hardest-hit counties according to Unicef include Baringo, Garissa, Isiolo, Mandera, Marsabit, Samburu, Tana River, Turkana and Wajir.
“Some 1.1 million children are food insecure, while over 100,000 children under
five are in need of treatment for severe malnutrition. An additional 174,000 children are out of school as a direct result of the drough,” Unicef said in a report.
President Uhuru Kenyatta declared the drought a national disaster in February 2017, as acute water and food shortage rocked the vulnerable counties.
At least six people were reported to have died of starvation in Baringo.Scores were said to have died in Turkana, Tana River and Marsabit. No official data was provided by the state.
By January of 2017, Unicef had reported a dispatch of 12,000 cartons of essential Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods for the treatment of 12,000 severely malnourished children.
Unicef further reported that maize production in the coastal areas decreased by 99 per cent, compared to the long-term average.
“Pastoralist communities in Turkana, Marsabit, Samburu and Mandera counties are losing large numbers of livestock. Close to 175,000 children were not attending school,” the agency reported.
The National Drought Management Authority reported in June last year that access to water in areas dominated by pastoralist communities is still a problem.
The authority says local communities are still experiencing long distances between home and water sources, unusually high food prices, and worrying levels of malnutrition.
Oxfam reported that the 2017 drought was “worse in a number of ways than in 2011, with some areas experiencing the failure of three rains in a row”.
WATER HARVESTING
Professor Paul Kimurto, an Egerton University dry crops expert, says drought and flooding extremes can be reversed.
Kimurto calls for elaborate plans for water harvesting during the heavy rains. The researcher says modern water storage technologies adopted by Australia and India will help Kenya avoid the two disasters, drought and flooding.
“County governments lack proper water harvesting and conservation laws. With modern technologies, extremes occasioned by weather vagaries can be reversed in 50 days,” Kimurto says.
He urges county governments to rehabilitate degraded environments to avoid weather-related disasters.
Met weather seasonal update indicates heavy rainfall will continue to pound several parts of the country until June.
According to the update signed by met director Peter Ambenje, some regions will experience heavy downpours until the third week of May.
Counties in the lake region, Central Rift (Nakuru and Nyahururu), South Coast and the Northern Coastal strip will experience rains until June.
The update also indicates that Southern parts of the Rift Valley (Narok and Kajiado), Central Highlands (including Nairobi), Northern and North Western and South Eastern will experience heavy rains until the third week of next month.
Following the latest heavy rains, the National Environmental Management Authority expressed concern over the extent of the plastic bottle menace, which was most evident during the flash floods.
Nema director general Geoffrey Wahungu
says the flooding has been exacerbated by the presence of the banned plastic bags, which block drainage systems in most towns and cities.
Wahungu says the authority will intensify crackdowns on plastic bags to mitigate flooding in major towns.