The number of deaths in Kenya by rains torrential rains and floods caused by the El Niño meteorological phenomenon increased from 136 to 154, while more than 500,000 people have been displaced, the Government reported today.
Government spokesman Isaac Mwaura indicated that 38 of the African country’s 47 counties are affected by floods. “Food distribution continues in twenty counties as rescue efforts continue,” Mwaura told the Kenyan newspaper Daily Nation.
The most affected Kenyan territories currently are the coastal counties of Lamu and Tana River (east).
El Niño has caused flash floods, flooding in low plains, river overflows, landslides, loss of livestock and destruction of crops and infrastructure in different parts of the country, especially along the coastal strip, in areas of the land central highlands, the southeastern lowlands and several areas of the northeast and northwest of the country.
Last month, Kenyan President William Ruto was criticized for ensuring that the country would not experience rain from this phenomenon, only heavy rainfall that “they would not be destructive”.
The Kenya Meteorological Department predicted, however, that the heavy rains will continue until January 2024. El Niño is a change in atmospheric dynamics caused by the increase in the temperature of the Pacific Ocean.
These floods came after the worst drought recorded in the Horn of Africa in the last four decades, a lack of water that left Somalia on the brink of famine and with 6.6 million people under acute food insecurity, according to the UN.
Source: Gestion
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