Rains wreak havoc, leave residents stranded

By DANIEL NZIA

MACHAKOS COUNTY, KENYA:  Machakos residents are counting losses following a heavy downpour that lasted several hours.

Flash floods swept through several estates in the town leaving  a trail of destruction on houses and roads on Sunday.

The most affected areas were Eastleigh, Susana and Kenya Israel where houses and perimeter walls were damaged by the raging floods as victims lost household goods worth thousands of shillings.

Denis Musyoka Muli and his wife, who narrowly escaped after the waters brought down the walls of their house, thanked God for saving them. “We were sound asleep when shortly after 11pm, I noticed water inside our house,” he said.

Got stuck

Muli, who got leg injuries from falling stones, said they managed to rescue a few household goods with the help of neighbours.

“I thank God that we are alive,” Muli told The Standard outside what used to be his house.

Other victims of the sudden downpour, including a KTN cameraman Japheth Makau, spent the better part of yesterday scooping water out of their houses. “I did not lose anything but my house was waterlogged up to about one foot from the floor,” said Makau.

And a Makueni County Executive Member in charge of IT Tom Luusa was stranded for hours near Century Park College on the Machakos-Wote road.

Luusa said their car got stuck on a flooded and muddy section of the road shortly before Katoloni market and they had to be pulled out by sand transporters.