Current:Home > MyKenya floods death toll nears 170 as president vows help for his country's "victims of climate change" -SecureNest Finance
Kenya floods death toll nears 170 as president vows help for his country's "victims of climate change"
View
Date:2025-04-12 21:23:47
Nairobi — Kenyan President William Ruto convened a special cabinet meeting Tuesday to discuss measures to tackle deadly floods that have killed nearly 170 people and displaced 185,000 others since March, his office said. Heavier than usual monsoon rains, compounded by the El Nino weather pattern, have devastated the East African country, along with neighboring Tanzania, engulfing villages and threatening to unleash even more damage in the weeks to come.
In the worst single incident, which killed nearly 50 villagers, a makeshift dam burst in the Rift Valley region before dawn on Monday, sending torrents of mud and water gushing down a hill and swallowing everything in its path. It was the deadliest incident episode in the country since the start of the rainy season.
So far, 169 people have died in flood-related disasters, according to government data.
The cabinet will "discuss additional measures" to address the crisis, Ruto said Monday on the sidelines of a summit of African leaders and the World Bank in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
"My government is going to... make sure that citizens who are victims of climate change, who today are suffering floods, they are suffering mudslides, are looked after," he said.
The Rift Valley deluge cut off a road, uprooted trees and washed away homes and vehicles, devastating the village of Kamuchiri in Nakuru county.
Forty-seven people were killed, Nakuru County health minister Jacqueline Osoro told AFP on Tuesday.
"This morning we lost one person who was in the HDU (high dependency unit), so we've moved at 47 deaths," she said, adding that the toll could increase as 76 people were still feared missing.
Nakuru governor Susan Kihika said 110 people were being treated in hospital.
Opposition politicians and lobby groups have accused the government of being unprepared and slow to react despite weather warnings, demanding that it declare a national disaster.
Kenya's main opposition leader Raila Odinga said Tuesday that authorities had failed to make "advance contingency plans" for the extreme weather.
"The government has been talking big on climate change, yet when the menace comes in full force, we have been caught unprepared," he said. "We have therefore been reduced to planning, searching and rescuing at the same time."
The weather has also left a trail of destruction in neighboring Tanzania, where at least 155 people have been killed in flooding and landslides.
In Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, flooding claimed the lives of four people on Monday, according to the Fire and Disaster Risk Management Commission.
- In:
- Climate Change
- Africa
- Kenya
- Severe Weather
- Global warming
- Flooding
- Flood
veryGood! (8)
Related
- Backstage at New York's Jingle Ball with Jimmy Fallon, 'Queer Eye' and Meghan Trainor
- University of Missouri student group ‘heartbroken’ after it was told to rename its Welcome Black BBQ
- Horoscopes Today, August 17, 2024
- Firefighters significantly tame California’s fourth-largest wildfire on record
- Intel's stock did something it hasn't done since 2022
- Human remains discovered in Tennessee more than 20 years ago have been identified
- Favorable views of Kamala Harris have risen this summer heading into the DNC, AP-NORC poll shows
- One dead and six missing after a luxury superyacht sailboat sinks in a storm off Sicily
- Meet first time Grammy nominee Charley Crockett
- MLB power rankings: World Series repeat gets impossible for Texas Rangers
Ranking
- Federal hiring is about to get the Trump treatment
- Mamie Laverock Leaves Hospital 3 Months After Falling Off Five-Story Balcony
- Bobby Bones Reacts to Julianne Hough Disagreeing With Dancing With the Stars Win
- The Latest: Preparations underway for night 1 of the DNC in Chicago
- As Trump Enters Office, a Ripe Oil and Gas Target Appears: An Alabama National Forest
- Tech Magnate Mike Lynch and Daughter Among 6 People Missing After Yacht Sinks Off Sicily Coast
- Two 18-year-olds charged with murder of former ‘General Hospital’ actor Johnny Wactor
- Julianne Hough Reveals Which Dancing With the Stars Win She Disagreed With
Recommendation
DeepSeek: Did a little known Chinese startup cause a 'Sputnik moment' for AI?
Biden’s offer of a path to US citizenship for spouses leaves some out
Why preseason struggles should serve as wake-up call for Chargers' Jim Harbaugh
50 years on, Harlem Week shows how a New York City neighborhood went from crisis to renaissance
North Carolina trustees approve Bill Belichick’s deal ahead of introductory news conference
Phil Donahue, who ruled daytime talk for years until Oprah overtook him, left a lasting imprint
2 dead, at least 100 evacuated after flooding sweeps through Connecticut
Alabama sets November date for third nitrogen execution