Kenya announced on Sunday a new toll of 228 deaths since March in bad weather which shows no sign of abating, even if the country escaped the ravages of a cyclone which swept its coasts and those of Tanzania the day before.
Tropical cyclone Hidaya swept through these two East African countries without causing any casualties or major damage, after losing power when it made landfall on Saturday. Tanzania said on Sunday that the cyclone no longer posed a danger to the country.
However, Nairobi stressed that Kenya was still experiencing torrential rains, risking further landslides and flooding.
In the west of the country, a river burst its banks at dawn on Sunday, flooding a police station, a hospital and a market in the locality of Ahero, in Kisumu county, reported the police, who did not no reports of casualties at this stage.
Water levels continue to rise and the main bridge on the outskirts of Kisumu on the highway linking the capital Nairobi has been submerged.
“The situation is serious,” summarized a government spokesperson, Isaac Mwaura, during a press briefing on Sunday dedicated to the crisis.
In a statement published early Sunday on the social network
“Therefore, there is no longer any threat of tropical cyclone + Hidaya + in our country,” she concluded.
The beaches were deserted on Saturday, shops closed and maritime transport suspended in the Zanzibar archipelago. The country has been hit since the beginning of April by bad weather which has left at least 155 dead.
As the cyclone approached, heavier than normal rainfall was recorded in coastal regions but no damage or casualties were recorded.
In Kenya, the cyclone also caused strong waves, strong winds and rainfall which could intensify from Sunday. One fisherman died and another was missing, Mr Mwaura said.
“Humanitarian crisis”
According to government figures, bad weather since March has left 228 dead and 72 missing. More than 212,000 people have been displaced, “by choice or by force”, said Isaac Mwaura.
Kenya’s Interior Ministry has ordered anyone living near large rivers or 178 “dams or reservoirs filled or almost filled with water” to evacuate the area.
Mr Mwaura also warned of the risk of water-borne diseases. A case of cholera has been reported, as well as diarrhea.
The director general of the International Federation of Red Crescent and Red Cross Societies (IFRC), Jagan Chapagain, told X on Saturday that forecasts suggesting further rainfall raise “great concerns about a wider humanitarian crisis “.
The Kenyan government has been accused of unpreparedness and responding too late to the crisis despite weather warnings. The opposition Azimio party called on him to declare a state of national disaster.
In an address to the nation on Friday, President William Ruto called the weather forecast “disastrous”, blaming the calamitous cycle of drought and floods on a failure to protect the environment.
The rains that hit East Africa were made worse by El Niño. This natural climatic phenomenon generally associated with global warming causes droughts in certain parts of the world and heavy rains elsewhere.
In Burundi, at least 29 people have died and 175 have been injured since the start of the rainy season in September, and other weather-related deaths have also been reported in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Somalia and Uganda.
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