Kenya: nearly 4,000 families displaced by floods

About 4,000 families have been displaced by floods in Kenya, Raymond Omollo, principal secretary at the Ministry of Interior and National Administration, said Tuesday. The majority of affected families are in the west of the country, particularly in Busia and Kisumu counties, which were hit hard by heavy rains last week.

“The overflowing of the Nzoia, Nyando, Yala, Miriu and Awach rivers led to the displacement of 3,970 families”specified Mr. Omollo in a press release published in Nairobi. To address this long-term crisis, he added, the government plans to relocate at-risk communities to safer housing and create 30-meter buffer zones along rivers and large bodies of water. , in order to limit future travel.

Currently, affected families are housed in camps set up in schools, while the rains persist across the country. The Intergovernmental Climate Authority on Development (IGAD) Forecast and Applications Center (ICPAC) had already warned in November of higher than normal shipments in eight countries in the Horn of Africa, including Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Somalia, Ethiopia and South Sudan.

According to ICPAC, some affected areas in Kenya could receive between 50 and 200 mm of rain per day. Residents of high-risk areas are therefore called upon to be extra vigilant. In 2023, floods in the Horn of Africa caused the death of 270 people and displaced more than 900,000 individuals, recalls the ICPAC report.