Kenya still victim of bad weather. According to the latest report from the authorities, 228 people have died in floods since the start of the rainy season in March. This deluge is linked to the El Nino climatic phenomenon and is expected to last several more weeks, according to the Kenyan Meteorological Institute. Tens of thousands of households were displaced and, on Sunday May 5, President William Ruto announced several measures to help them.
1 min
With our correspondent in Nairobi, Gaëlle Laleix
Rubber boots on his feet, perched on a pile of rubble in the Mathare slum in Nairobi, William Ruto promises: he will not let anyone sleep outside.
40,000 families had to leave their homes which were located in flood zones. In the slums of the capital, the tin houses built on the banks of waterways were completely destroyed by the public authorities.
As a result, William Ruto promises aid of 10,000 shillings, or nearly 70 euros, which will be paid to displaced families, enough to pay rent, assures the president “until the government finds a lasting solution. »
The measure leaves Njeri Mwangi, of the Mathare Center for Social Justice, skeptical: “ Owners of houses in non-flooded areas have more than doubled rents since the rains » she explains before deploring that“Today we have to pay 8,000 shillings per month to live dry […]. The president has no idea of the reality of things », she adds.
On Sunday, William Ruto also announced the construction of 20,000 social housing units. In the meantime, in Mathare, the displaced populations are sleeping in the schools and churches of the slum.
Read alsoFloods in Kenya: shanty towns demolished to force populations to evacuate