KENYA: Heavy rains, landslides claim 100 lives, Red Cross says

Kenya’s Red Cross estimates that at least 100 people have lost their lives since early April as heavy rainfall accompanied by landslides continue to wreck havoc in Eastern Kenya.

Local sources say weeks of floods, landslides and heavy rains have forced around 200,000 people to flee their homes with the Red Cross saying the situation is a humanitarian disaster that needs funding.

Eight people were killed when mudslides destroyed their homes as they slept in the hilly central region of Murang’a on Friday night, said Kenya Red Cross Secretary General Abbas Gullet.

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He also added that outbreaks of water-borne diseases were another concern across Kenya.

“We would urge the national government to declare this a national disaster so that deliberate effort can be made and resources mobilised to help the affected people,” Gullet told reporters in the capital on Sunday.

“We need a national disaster management fund set up.”

Gullet said the military and police had deployed helicopters for rescue missions but more efforts were needed.

“I have lost 12 chicken and four goats. We were not able to save all of them and I can’t access the house because the door can’t open,” said the mother-of-four in the town of Tana River in lower Coast region.

 

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