The bodies of two employees of Kenya’s tax agency who had been swept away by floods while driving in the coast region on Friday were recovered on Sunday.
The Kenya Coast Guard also retrieved the body of a man who was swept away while riding his motorbike.
Authorities on Saturday said that 10 people had been confirmed dead at the coast. The deaths occurred following three days of unrelenting heavy rains and floods.
More than 20,000 families have also been displaced across the three affected counties of Mombasa, Kilifi, Kwale and Tana River. This was confirmed by the Coast regional police commissioner Rhoda Onyancha on Saturday.
Overall, dozens of people have died and thousands displaced across the country since the beginning of November after heavy rains and floods caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon.
The heavy rains and resulting floods have killed dozens more in neighbouring countries, including Somalia and Ethiopia.
Senator wants Ruto to apologize to Kenyans
Meanwhile, Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osotsi has called on President Ruto to apologise to Kenyans for misleading them on El Nino. According to the Senator, the President who is supposed to be at the forefront of protecting Kenyans, misled the citizens by issuing contradictory statements over the El Nino rains.
“I think the president owes this country an apology. Because he came out and said this season will not be El Nino, it is just going to be rain. But now we have seen it is proper El Nino. People have lost lives and property. I think he deserves to give an apology to Kenyans for misinforming them,” Osotsi stated.
President Ruto, on October 22, said the meteorology department had scaled down the El Nino notice to short normal rains. This led many people and organizations to stop any preparedness measures they had started for the enhanced rains. They instead started focusing on normal agricultural activities.
However, the rains had a different idea contrary to the President’s opinion.
Humanitarian needs in the country increasing
In recent days, the country has experienced heavy rains that have led to flooding in 33 counties in the country. The country’s leadership has also reported loss of lives, loss of animals, and destruction of property.
Roads and major infrastructure connecting Northern Kenya to major supply towns have been cut off.
In Mandera County, residents were forced to spend the better part of the weekend in darkness and without power. This is after the Kenya Power generators that supply power to the county ran out of fuel.
It turns out that the truck that was meant to deliver fuel to the generators was stuck on the road for days after the road network was cut off. As a result, the local power office has decided to ration power.
The Red Cross and other humanitarian actors like Save the Children and the WFP have been forced to airlift their relief supplies to Wajir. However, they have been unable to reach affected communities in Mandera after the Murram airstrip in Mandera was temporarily closed off for large aircraft.
The enhanced rains forced the government to retract the misinformation on scaling down of El Nino. Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua in a press conference forced the met department to apologise for what he said was misleading information over the rains.
Now the Vihiga Senator wants the President to apologize to Kenyans.
Additional reporting by BBC
