Rescuers were searching for at least 91 people missing in heavy flooding across Kenya, the interior ministry said.
At least 46 people were killed yesterday morning in a mudslide and flash floods in Mai Mahiu town in central Kenya, the ministry said in a situation report, an increase of one on the previous death toll.
Survivors in Mai Mahiu described an onslaught of water that carried away houses, cars and railway tracks.
“When I opened the door, the water gushed in and made its way through the kitchen,” resident Anne Gachie said.
“My husband managed to quickly manoeuvre and get out. My daughters who were in the next room were swept out of the house by the force of the water.”
Another 53 people in Mai Mahiu were reported missing, the interior ministry said, while the Kenya Red Cross said its tracing desk had reports of 76 missing.
In all, at least 169 people have died across Kenya from heavy rains and flooding since last month. More than 185,000 have been forced from their homes, according to government data.
Dozens more have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced by intense downpours in Tanzania and Burundi, with scientists saying climate change is causing more intense and frequent extreme weather events.
The eastern county of Garissa, where four people were killed when their boat capsized over the weekend and 23 others who were rescued from the floodwaters, has reported 16 people missing, the interior ministry said.
At least 120 people were killed in Kenya late last year by flooding caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon. Those rains followed the worst drought large parts of east Africa had experienced in decades.
Kenya’s president Ruto convenes cabinet meeting over deadly floods
Kenyan president William Ruto convened a special cabinet meeting to discuss measures to tackle the deadly floods, his office said.
The cabinet will “discuss additional measures” to address the crisis, Mr Ruto said yesterday on the sidelines of a summit of African leaders and the World Bank in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
“My government is going to … make sure that citizens who are victims of climate change, who today are suffering floods, they are suffering mudslides, are looked after,” he said.
Opposition politicians and lobby groups have accused the government of being unprepared and slow to react despite weather warnings, demanding that it declare a national disaster.
Kenya’s main opposition leader Raila Odinga said the authorities had failed to make “advance contingency plans” for the extreme weather.
“The government has been talking big on climate change, yet when the menace comes in full force, we have been caught unprepared,” he said.
“We have therefore been reduced to planning, searching and rescuing at the same time.”
The international community, including African Union chief Moussa Faki Mahamat, have sent condolences and vowed solidarity with the affected families.
The weather has also left a trail of destruction in neighbouring Tanzania, where at least 155 people have been killed in flooding and landslides.
In Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, flooding claimed the lives of four people yesterday, according to the Fire and Disaster Risk Management Commission.
