Mai Mahiu flood survivors petition Senate over resettlement

Nakuru Senator Tabitha Karanja Keroche flanked by victims of the Mai Mahiu dam tragedy address the press in Naivasha over their failed resettlement on Aug 7, 2024. [Antony Gitonga, Standard]

Survivors of the Mai Mahiu floods tragedy that left more than 60 people dead have appealed to the Senate to intervene over their resettlement and compensation.

Three months after the disaster that left scores injured and property worth millions of shillings destroyed, the painful reality that they could never be resettled started to sink in.

This emerged when some of the victims met Nakuru Senator Tabitha Karanja in Naivasha to seek the Senate’s intervention to end their suffering.

On April 29, the floods swept through Mai Mahiu destroying everything in its path.

The senator said the families had undergone untold suffering since the tragedy as they waited for resettlement by the government.

Speaking after the meeting, Karanja said that she would petition the Senate to intervene in the matter after President William Ruto visited the area and promised to resettle the families.

“The President has on several occasions promised to resettle these victims but it’s sad that months after the incident, many are now being evicted from rental houses,” she said.

She protested the delay in resettling the 130 families currently living in rental houses in Mai Mahiu town.

The senator challenged the Nakuru County government to honour the promise to resettle the families saying that during the memorial service for the flood victims, the governor came up with a budget to assist the victims.

“The county had set aside funds for disaster management plus funds for addressing the El Nino rains and this could come in handy in resettling these families,” she said.

One of the victims Bernard Ndung’u said that three months after the incident, no government officials had contacted them over the planned resettlement.

He regretted that majority of the families were being evicted from their rental houses after they exhausted three months rent which had been paid by well-wishers.

“The President promised that geology experts would visit the affected area to assess if it’s habitable so that we can return there but this has never happened,” he said.

This was echoed by Hannah Njeri who said that the victims were still traumatized by the tragedy while tens of others were nursing injuries in their homes and hospitals.

“We were promised resettlement within three months but this was just a promise and many of us are been kicked out of our homes by landlords leading to more mental torture,” she said.