Sigh of relief as city flood survivors receive assistance

USAID  Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance Daniel Ryan presents Non-Food Items to Mukuru slum beneficiary Joseph Muragu as Concern worldwide country director Wairimu Wahome and Livelihood coordinator Jackson Mekenye look on. [David Gichuru, Standard]

Over 20,000 flood victims in Nairobi City have a reason to smile. This is after USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), Concern Worldwide and Mukuru Slums Development Project (MSDP) partnered to launch Food Emergency Response Action in Nairobi (FERN).

This year between April and May, informal settlements within the county bore the brunt of the heavy rains and floods that claimed the lives of over 200 people.

The flood crisis affected a total of 411,825 people while 58,009 households were displaced in Nairobi according to the National Disaster Operations Centre (NDOC).

The government later embarked on an exercise to move those living along the city’s riparian lands, demolishing their structures, thus leaving many homeless.

Speaking during the launch of the project at Mukuru Skills Centre in the Industrial Area, Concern Worldwide Kenya country director Wairimu Munyinyi-Wahome said the programme will benefit over 30,000 vulnerable individuals in Nairobi’s informal settlements of Mathare, Korogocho, Kiambio and Mukuru.

“We intend through the six months’ project period to target 7,800 households and 21,678 individuals, providing Sh4,500 cash transfer assistance per affected person for four months and a one-off non-food assorted water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) items,” said Ms Wairimu.

She added: “Our mission is to enhance their ability to independently provide for their basic needs, ensure access to safe sanitation facilities, and increase their knowledge about key public health risks.”

During the launch of the project on Friday, 200 individuals were the first batch to benefit from the project.

Ms Wairimu urged the government to continue prioritising the assistance of victims of such emergencies while encouraging the adaptation of interventions that promote the resilience of communities to withstand future shocks.

“I also urge the government to ensure that when they are doing budgeting, they should have sustainability and long-term resilience building for communities like the slum residents in mind so that whenever such incident like a flood happens, we have the same interventions like the one we are launching today,” she said.

She said there is a need to equip such communities with skills and empower them with economic opportunities to be able to overcome calamities. 

The USAID will provide the funding for the project while Concern Worldwide and MSDP deal with implementation.

“The grant to Concern Worldwide is about USD2.3 million (Sh300 million), although not much but we believe will go a long way in helping the flood victims build back their lives and live a dignified life,' said Daniel Ryan, USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance team leader. 

Anne Muthoni, MSDP Head of programmes said the 31 beneficiaries were identified through the help of Nyumba Kumi and those who are going to benefit from the project are the most vulnerable victims of the floods.

“In Mukuru we have around 400 households and the majority are in Mathare, where about 700 will benefit from the FERN project,” she said.

Viwandani Assistant County Commissioner David Mutua thanked USAID for the financial support towards the project but called for more non-state actors to support the victims of the floods and demolitions.

“The victims are many and USAID has done well to offer financial intervention but there are still gaps that need to be filled by other non-state actors because the victims are just many and some have not recovered from the flooding and later demolition incidents,” said Mutua.

He said the current population of the Lunga Lunga informal settlement is slightly around 50,000, having risen from 43,000 in the 2019 census, the majority of who do small business with meagre earnings.

The ACC asked the beneficiaries to spend the cash transfer wisely instead of misusing it in alcohol to meet other basic needs.