Tragic: Ten killed in raging floods

Residents of Akiriamasit in Teso South remove items from a flooded house on Saturday. [Ignatius Odanga, Standard]

Marsabit Governor Mohamud Ali yesterday skipped Mashujaa Day celebrations to respond to a floods crisis in Moyale.

Mr Ali led a team from county and national governments to areas of Badanrero, Dabel, Bori and Dirdima which were worst hit by the flooding. Other affected areas the leaders visited were Rawana, Ellebor, Ambalo and Funan Qumbi.

The floods have caused deaths and huge destruction in Moyale Constituency for two weeks now. One person reportedly died at Oda while scores of families were displaced. Hundreds of livestock have also been swept away and several rural roads that link major towns cut off.

Ali thanked the national government for timely intervention and further called for more aid from NGOs.

He was accompanied by Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa, Senator Hargura Godana and Moyale MP Qalicha Gufu.

Elsewhere in the North Rift, nine people have been killed by landslides and flooding in the past one week.

Tens of livestock have also been swept away by raging waters, with transport paralysed in some parts.

In Elgeyo Marakwet, a couple and their two children were buried alive by a landslide on Thursday night after a heavy downpour.

The incident occurred at Kapkonder village in Marakwet East.

The victims, Titus Kiptoo and his wife Lorna Cheserek, both secondary school teachers, and their two children Aurelia Chepchirchir and Joy Chelimo, who was barely a month-old, were found dead after their house was swept by the mudslide.

In the neighbouring Wet Pokot, two children were also buried alive while other family members sustained injuries in a landslide at Solion on Saturday night. The two siblings aged two and three years were buried inside their house as their parents narrowly-escaped the tragedy.

Pokot Central Commissioner Were Simiyu said two children aged four and eight years and their mother, Lorna Limareng, 24, were injured as they tried to save their family members. 

Thirty goats belonging to Loritanyang Siwanyang, 65, were also washed away. 

In Turkana, three people were killed by flash floods. An estimated 10,000 animals were swept away.

Busia Woman Representative Florence Mutua said rising cases of people and livestock being killed by lightning in Teso South and Teso North constituencies were alarming.

Mrs Mutua regretted that people from the two sub-counties were living in fear because of the floods that had wreaked havoc for the last one week.

Yesterday, residents of Okook village in Teso South recovered the body of Mark Erapuu in River Opwaka Okook hours after he was swept away by flash floods on Sunday evening.

On Wednesday, a Form One from same village was struck to death by lightning while washing her uniform.

[Wainaina Ndung'u, Audrey Ngeny, Irissheel Shanzu, Bakari Angela and Ignatius Odanga]