More than 48,000 Tana River residents have been rendered homeless after floods damaged and swept away houses in the area. This happened after the banks of Tana River broke and water swept through the homesteads. Houses in more than 10 villages have been destroyed and people are fearing for their safety. According to statistics from the Kenya Red Cross, approximately 8, 155 families have been severely affected and need immediate help.
On Wednesday, Kenya Red Cross Society led by the Secretary-General Dr Asha Mohamed and Tana River County Governor Dhadho Godhana visited the affected areas. They distributed food and non-food items to flood victims at Baomo Village in Tana River County. They were on a three-day tour of the affected areas.
“I’ve registered quite a number of villages that need relocation. Generally, the river behaves this way all the time. This is not the first time it has happened. The long-term solution would be to move all these people along the riparian area to more formal settlement areas. The county government in our role assessment of the situation thought the best way would be to move them to higher ground and to bigger settlements that have been integrated with the urban agenda of the county,” Governor Godhana said while speaking to a local station.
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Data from Red Cross indicates that the worst affected areas are Tana Delta, Tana North and Galole respectively. The Kenya Meteorological department projects that the heavy rains will continue until June.
“We have really suffered. Floods destroyed houses. Right now, I cannot sleep in my home. I sleep in the forest and suffer from extreme cold conditions. A space where we can rebuild our homes should be quickly found. Trees for building new houses have been submerged in water. The place where we get woods is also inaccessible. The water has destroyed Schools and classes for teaching religious studies. Flooding happened unexpectedly. We don’t have any money. Government, please help us,” A Tana River resident said.
