NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Water levels raised by rains at two Kenyan hydroelectric dams are at “historic highs” and people downstream should stay away, the Cabinet said Tuesday, and ordered residents of prone areas to floods across the country that they evacuate or they will be forcibly moved.
Kenya, together with other parts of East Africa, was hit by floods that killed 66 people on Monday alone and that in recent days blocked a national highway, flooded the main airport and knocked a bus off a bridge. More than 150,000 people are displaced and live in dozens of camps.
With seasonal rains expected to increase, the Cabinet Office said residents of areas with past flooding or landslides, and residents near dams and rivers considered high risk, will be told by Wednesday to evacuate. Those who do not will be forcibly moved.
It was not clear how many people would have to move, or how notifications and evacuations would be carried out in the short term, especially in crowded informal neighborhoods.
“We will help you all and ensure that we resettle you in an area that the government has identified,” President William Ruto said during a visit to the Mai Mahiu area, an hour’s drive west of Nairobi, where a river burst through a tunnel blocked on Monday morning. It is killed at least 48 people.
As bodies were pulled from beneath fallen trees, there was frustration with authorities. “This tunnel started to be blocked on Wednesday and the local government knew about it,” said resident Sam Njoroge, who said relatives had been killed. “So, in my opinion, the government was negligent because if they acted quickly they would unblock the tunnel and all that. deaths would not have happened.”
On Kenya’s longest river, the Tana, to the east, water levels at the Masinga and Kiambere hydroelectric dams have reached historic highs, the Cabinet said.
On Sunday, flooding in Tana turned into a boat and seven people died, with another 13 missing. Earlier this month, high waters on the Tana swept a bus off a bridge. All 51 passengers were rescued.
Floods in East Africa also killed more than 150 people in neighboring Tanzania and Somalia and affected hundreds of thousands of people in Ethiopia and Burundi.
