Flash floods caused by El Nino-linked heavy rains across Kenya have killed 120 people since October and displaced about 90,000 households, the government said today.
The authorities have set up more than 100 camps to house the displaced, it added.
The northeastern regions of Mandera, Wajir, Garissa and Tana River are some of the most affected.
“All major dams are being monitored but Kiambere has a meter remaining to overflow,” said interior ministry official Raymond Omollo, referring to the Kiambere Hydroelectric Power Station in Tana River.
“We call on those downstream to move to higher ground even as government enhances power generation to mitigate the challenge.”
International medical organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said last week that floodwaters had cut off access to parts of Garissa and Mandera counties, leaving many residents without shelter, clean drinking water or food supplies.
It warned that there was a risk of water-borne diseases spreading in camps housing international refugees in Garissa such as cholera amid lack of latrines and clean drinking.
The country’s weather agency has predicted that heavy rains will continue until the new year.
Nearly 100 people have been killed in neighboring Somalia and hundreds of thousands displaced, according to the governmemt there and the United Nations.
