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| Situation Update No. 2 Ref.no.: FF-20100101-24376-KEN
Situation Update No. 2
On 2010-01-04 at 15:24:40 [UTC]
Event: Flash Flood
Location: Kenya State of Rift Valley River Kilimo Naivasha
Number of Deads: 30 person(s)
Number of Missing: 60 person(s)
Situation: Kenyan police have confirmed the death of 30 people due to flooding in Nyanza, Rift Valley and Western Provinces, following torrential rains currently pounding parts of the country, which until recently was ravaged by drought. But media and government agencies have reported that the fate of 60 people were yet unknown, after a bus in which they were travelling from western Kenya on Sunday night was washed away by flash floods. The floods have also killed hundreds of livestock " cattle, sheep and goats" in mostly arid and semi-arid regions, where pastoralism is the main economic activity. According to 'The Standard' daily, three schools and nearly 7,000 homes were washed away in northern Kenya by the raging floods. In the same region, 2,000 sheep and goats, 430 cows 65 camels and 57 donkeys have died as a result of the heavy flooding. Northern Kenya is largely a semi-desert with rain cycles of between three and five years. Hundreds of thousands of livestock were last year decimated by a three year-drought blamed for sporadic fighting between the nomadic pastora list communities that live in the drylands as they fought over the scarce pasture and water for their animals.
The roads that connect northern Kenya to Ethiopia and Southern Sudan have been washed away, leaving scores of people who depend on arterial transport stranded. On Monday, the Kenya Meteorological Department, a government agency, warned of more havoc as rivers break banks and gulleys become potential deathtraps. The department, which described the freak weather as minor El Nino, said the torrential downpour being experienced would subside mid next month. It has issued an alert to people living in low lying areas and plains to reloca te to safe grounds as the rains persist. The full impact of the freak weather has not been assessed, but indications are that the ravage wrought by the unusual rains was likely to cost the exchequer a huge sum of in terms of road repairs and humanitarian assistance to those people. Kenya has two rainy seasons. The long rains season extends from from March to July, while the short rains are experienced between September and November. December to February is generally a dry spell. |  | | | |
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