After going months with­out a sin­gle drop, Kenya is now receiv­ing too much rain. Heavy down­pours are caus­ing flash floods and is forc­ing peo­ple to flee their homes.

From IRIN, we read more about the next human­i­tar­ian sit­u­a­tion in Kenya.

After days of heavy rain, flash floods in Kenya’s coastal Mag­a­rini dis­trict have dis­placed at least 500 fam­i­lies, sweep­ing away houses and live­stock, offi­cials said.

Most of the affected fam­i­lies were from Kurawa and Kanag­oni vil­lages in Mag­a­rini. Many have already sought alter­na­tive shel­ter, with some head­ing to a camp for the dis­placed along the Malindi-Garissa highway.

John Man­asseh, a local leader, told IRIN on 28 Octo­ber: “We had assumed that since the rains were delayed at the begin­ning of the year, we would not expe­ri­ence any flood­ing. We even started cul­ti­vat­ing our farms in readi­ness for the rain, but it seems we were all wrong.”

Most of the coastal region has been dry, hav­ing not had rains since early 2009. In August, the Kenya Mete­o­ro­log­i­cal Depart­ment warned that the coun­try could soon expe­ri­ence El Niño-related enhanced rain­fall. Already, heavy rains have been reported in many parts of the coun­try, with Coast Province being the lat­est to expe­ri­ence flooding.

The Mag­a­rini flash floods occurred a day after two peo­ple report­edly died in Kolon­goni vil­lage in neigh­bour­ing Kil­ifi dis­trict, after a house in which they were sleep­ing col­lapsed after a down­pour, crush­ing them.

Jillo Gal­galo, one of those dis­placed by the floods in Mag­a­rini, said they lacked clean water for domes­tic use and were at risk of infec­tion from water­borne diseases.

“Most pit latrines have been washed away because nobody expected any floods to occur this soon,” Gal­galo said. “We are in dire need of clean water because most water points are now filled with all sorts of waste, includ­ing human waste and cow dung.”

Along with the neigh­bour­ing Tana River dis­trict — where roads con­nect­ing the towns of Mom­basa, Garissa and Lamu have been cut off due to the rains — roads in Kil­ifi have not been spared, with most roads con­nect­ing local trad­ing cen­tres impassable.

Secu­rity issues

At least 100 trucks and pas­sen­ger vehi­cles ply­ing sev­eral routes along the north coast region have either become stuck in mud or were parked by the road­side. Most of the dri­vers, espe­cially those on the Malindi-Garissa route, have expressed con­cern over pos­si­ble ban­dit attacks.

“Our main con­cern is secu­rity, keep­ing in mind the num­ber of times we’ve had cases of fel­low dri­vers being attacked by armed ban­dits in recent times,” Abdalla Musa, a truck dri­ver, said.

How­ever, the Tana Delta dis­trict com­mis­sioner, Ireri Nga­tia, said the gov­ern­ment would pro­vide secu­rity for all dri­vers using the route.

Nga­tia and his Mag­a­rini coun­ter­part, Richard Kananu, have also appealed to res­i­dents liv­ing in low-lying areas to move to higher ground.

Mean­while, the Kenya Red Cross Soci­ety and other human­i­tar­ian orga­ni­za­tions are assess­ing the sit­u­a­tion and prepar­ing to start pro­vid­ing the nec­es­sary assistance.

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