Violent floods left 38 dead yesterday, according to an initial report from the Kenyan Red Cross. Nearly 30,000 people had to flee their homes. This heavy rainfall is due to El Niño: a climatic phenomenon coming from the Pacific Ocean, which appears every six or seven years. The floods mainly affected eastern Kenya, but also Nairobi, the capital.
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With our correspondent in Nairobi, Gaëlle Laleix
This morning, the popular neighborhoods of Kibera and Mathare are still on the water. In the capital of Kenya, ten people died in Wednesday’s floods, according to police. Six others are missing.
This Wednesday, the president William Ruto summoned regional governors and county officials to an emergency meeting. He announced the creation of an inter-agency team to deal with the crisis. The Ministry of the Interior, regional development and youth services, for example, are mobilized.
A faulty drainage system
Opposition leader Raila Odinga, meanwhile, called on the government to declare the floods as ” national disaster » in order to allow the unblocking of all emergency mechanisms, in particular the deployment of the army.
These floods also revive the debate on rampant real estate prospecting in Nairobi. They highlighted the weakness of the city’s drainage system, while construction sites blocked many water evacuations. The head of Nairobi County has indicated the suspension of real estate projects, built on land upstream of the capital.
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