Kenyan President William Ruto called a special cabinet meeting on Tuesday to discuss measures to address deadly floods that have killed nearly 170 people and displaced another 185,000 since March, his office said. Heavier-than-usual monsoon rains, compounded by the El Niño weather pattern, have devastated the east African country, along with neighboring Tanzania, engulfing villages and threatening to cause even more damage in the coming weeks.
In the worst incident, which killed nearly 50 villagers, a makeshift dam burst in the Rift Valley region before dawn on Monday, sending torrents of mud and water gushing downhill and swallowing everything in its path. It was the deadliest incident in the country since the start of the rainy season.
So far, 169 people have died in flood-related disasters, according to government data.
Bodies are removed from the rubble as evacuation and search and rescue efforts continue in the flood-affected Mai Mahiu and Naivasha regions of Kenya, April 30, 2024.
The cabinet discussed additional measures to address the crisis, Ruto said Monday on the sidelines of a summit of African leaders and the World Bank in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital.
“My government is going to… make sure that citizens who are victims of climate change, who today are suffering floods, landslides, are taken care of,” he said.
