An official at the camp, Kennedy Ocholla, said among the displaced 215 were children aged below five and over 20 expectant women.
Red Cross Society of Kenya Homa Bay co-ordinator John Roche said they are helping the displaced. “We have mobilised community health workers to support the displaced,” he said, adding over 1000 people have been displaced in the area.
Homa Bay Deputy Governor, Hannington Orata, said they have talked with the ministry of Special Programmes to provide support.
Call for help
“We are going to get to relief food, mosquito nets and blankets. We expect the consignment by the end of the end of the day on Friday,” he said.
Orata said they would provide necessary facilities and seek a long-term solution to flooding. Residents said they couldn’t move and leave their fertile land. In West Pokot, a woman and a nursery school child died after they were swept away by floods. Lumut Catholic Parish Priest Francis Murunga said the two drowned as they crossed the flooded Lumut Bridge.
Fr Murunga said the woman was heading to her home in Mosar while the seven-year-old child was walking home from Popowon Primary School.
Directive to move
Local OCPD Nicholas Musila said: “It is true a woman and a child died after being swept away by floods.”
The Government had ordered over 150 families in Pokot South County to vacate areas prone to landslides. Area DC Kigen Kipkorir said only 63 families had moved out and joined relatives on low land safer areas and gave the remaining families three days to vacate the area.
“I have ordered the families to move away from the area. We fear the occurrence of landslide,” said the DC.
He asked residents to survey areas they are moving to arguing that most parts in the area had loose soils and inhabitable during wet season.
The DC said the most affected villages are Nyarikulian, Cheratak, Tilakai, Kasawai and Chepkoiket villages. The county has been experiencing land slides, where over ten people lost their lives in 2009 after.
The DC asked Red Cross and other well-wishers to supply residents with tents and food.
At the same time, onion and potatoes farmers in the area say they will be forced to plant the crops late since their farms are flooded with water.
Mr Wilson Chemjor, an onion farmer, said they were ready for the planting season but they will have to wait for the rains to subside.
Meanwhile, repair to a section of the damaged Nairobi-Nakuru highway in Naivasha have started amid the heavy rains.
Engineers from SS Mehta Construction Company said the work would be completed in two days.
A section of a bridge near Kayole Estate was on Tuesday washed off by floods that hit the lakeside town destroying property worth thousand of shillings. Following the damage, a section of the busy highway was closed down with heavy vehicles banned from the road and directed to use the Mai Mahiu road. The construction caused a massive traffic snarl-up as traffic police called on drivers to be extra-careful when using the road. Earlier, while touring the affected section, Roads PS Michael Kamau said more repairs would be done after the rains subside. Eng Kamau identified the Garissa-Hola and the Marsabit roads as some of the most affected by the rains.
Source: Standard Digital
