Flooding from weeks of intense rainfall across Kenya has left at least 18 people dead in the past week, police reported Sunday, with most victims drowning as swollen rivers and inundated neighborhoods caught residents off guard. The Interior Ministry said more than 54,000 households have been affected nationwide, including 6,000 in the capital, Nairobi, where urban flooding collapsed drainage and cut off access to entire sections of the city.
Dozens of schools and hospitals have been flooded, and 17 roads have been severed, making it difficult for emergency services to reach the worst-hit areas, according to ministry figures. Mudslides in the western Rift Valley forced thousands of people to flee their homes, and authorities urged residents living downstream of the Tana and Athi rivers to move to higher ground as water levels rose in the country’s hydroelectric dams.
The Kenya Meteorological Department has warned that enhanced rainfall will persist through the first two weeks of May, leaving already saturated ground unable to absorb further precipitation. The current rainy season, which began in March, has already killed more than 100 people by the end of that month, underscoring the cumulative toll of the relentless weather on the East African nation.