Nearly 4,000 families displaced by floods in Kenya

Nairobi, Dec 3 About 4,000 households have been displaced by floods in Kenya, a government official said Tuesday.

Raymond Omollo, principal secretary in the Ministry of Interior and National Administration, said the most affected families are in the western part of the country.

"Busia and Kisumu counties are among the hardest-hit following heavy rainfall over the past week, which has displaced 3,970 households. The displacement has been largely attributed to the overflow of rivers Nzoia, Nyando, Yala, Miriu and Awach," Omollo said in a statement issued in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.

He said that as part of a long-term strategy, the government will relocate communities at risk to better housing facilities and redesign 30-meter riparian corridors along the rivers and other large water bodies to curb displacement.

Omollo said the government will support affected communities, which are currently hosted in camps at different schools, as the rains continue to pound the East African nation, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Climate Prediction and Applications Center (ICPAC) of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, a regional bloc, forecasted in November that eight countries in the Horn of Africa, including Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Somalia, Ethiopia and South Sudan, would receive more than usual rainfall leading to floods.

According to the ICPAC, affected areas in Kenya are expected to receive between 50 and 200 mm of rain per day, with communities in high-risk areas advised to exercise caution during this period.

In 2023, some 270 people were killed and over 900,000 displaced by floods in the Horn of Africa, said the ICPAC.