Heavy Rains Have Killed Nearly 200 People In One Month In Kenya

Floods and landslides caused by heavy rain in Kenya have killed 194 people in one month and destroyed many crops, making it more difficult to fight the coronavirus epidemic, the government announced on Wednesday.

This heavy rain comes after that of late last year, bringing with it the second wave of locusts, from which huge swarms form in Kenya and other countries in East Africa. The combination of these two phenomena and the economic fallout from the coronavirus could cause severe famine in the region, observers fear.

People living in flood-prone areas of several regions where the main dams have reached their maximum capacity have been evacuated, the Kenyan government said in a statement.

“To date, 194 people have died” victims of the rains, floods and landslides associated with it, “particularly in western and central Kenya, as well as in the coastal regions”, he specifies.

He further points out that the rains destroyed 3,240 hectares of crops and that the infrastructure for water supply in the capital Nairobi, Nyeri, Kisumu and Nakuru (west), was destroyed.

The Ministry of Health will send masks and other hygiene products to IDP camps in the affected regions in an attempt to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the number of cases detected in Kenya is over 500, including 24 fatal.