Several families in Thika Constituency, Kiambu County have begun relocating to safer areas following floods occasioned by the ongoing heavy rains.
The flood situation, exacerbated by continuous rainfall, is severely impacting Kisii, Kamenu, Kiganjo, and Muthaiga villages as residents in these areas are enduring sleepless nights as their homes have been flooded.
In the villages, flooded neighbourhoods, inundated homes, swamped roads, and protracted power outages caused by intense rains have thrown life out of gear leaving tens of residents in the lurch.
According to the residents, rain torrents have been mixing with raw sewage since the heavy El Nino rains started falling, a situation that could result in an outbreak of waterborne diseases which are disastrous, especially to children who are on long December holidays.
The residents took issue with the government for undertaking zero contingency measures to contain the situation over the years.
Apprehensive about their safety, the furious locals accused the government of putting up small and ineffective culverts that sluggishly allow for the passage of flash floods, a situation that makes it easy for water to break banks causing floods at their homes.
Already several families have relocated to safer grounds unaware of when they will return to their homes as the heavy rains might continue till the end of the year.
According to Monica Mathu, a landlady, almost all her tenants have given vacation notices since water started flooding their houses, a situation that has left her struggling to pay the bank loans she secured to put up the houses.
“It’s been crazy trying to dry water from the entire plot. Almost all my tenants have given notices that they want to vacate. The situation is serious as the rainwater has mixed with raw sewage which makes the plot uninhabitable. The government must now move in quickly and offer us solutions,” Mathu said.
Families counting losses
In other homes, locals are counting losses after water that has already flooded their homes started destroying most appliances.
Electronic gadgets, couches, among other furniture have been destroyed as a result of the rains that continue to rain day and night.
The locals regretted that despite their numerous efforts to find answers to their long-standing predicament, nothing had been done to make the village seasonably habitable.
While narrating a heart-wrenching story of how they unsuccessfully try to block rainy water every time it rains, the residents decried that the flashfloods have been causing waterborne diseases and outbreaks singling out diarrhoea, cholera, typhoid fever among others.
“We are living in very unsafe times with our children yet we elected leaders. We are staring at an outbreak of diseases and this time round, the situation might worsen,” Clarion Ochieng from Kamenu estate said.
Bearing the brunt are uncontrollable children who play with the water and as a result, find themselves contracting diseases that would have otherwise been prevented.
The locals called on the government to urgently intervene and, using the disaster management floods to move them and put up permanent drainage systems in the area.
