Weather man: Watch out for floods today

Kenyans have been warned to prepare for floods with heavy rains expected in parts of the country today.

The Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD) announced that heavy rainfall exceeding 50mm between today and tomorrow will be experienced in parts of Central and North Rift Valley, Western, Northern and Central regions of the country.

The heavy rains are expected in most of the agricultural counties and others already combating floods that have so far claimed 172 lives countrywide and displaced close to 300,000 people.

In Turkana

Floods displaced 30,000 people and killed one in April in Turkana alone, according to Government data.

The weatherman said that other counties to be affected are Mandera, Murang'a, Marsabit, Samburu, West Pokot, Elgeyo Marakwet, Trans-Nzoia and Uasin-Gishu.

Others are Nandi, Baringo, Nakuru, Kericho, Bomet, Kakamega, Vihiga, Kisii , Nyamira, Laikipia, Nyandarua, Kiambu, and Nyeri.

KMD Director Peter Ambenje warned those living in urban areas to watch out for flash floods.

“Flood water may suddenly appear in places where it hasn’t rained heavily and can be deeper and faster than it looks,” warned Mr Ambenje in a heavy rains advisory.

He further warned Kenyans against wading or driving in moving water.

“Do not walk in moving water or drive through it. Please keep to safer grounds until the flooding subsides. Do not shelter under trees and near grilled windows or walk in open fields, this exposes one to lighting strikes,” he said.

“Residents in landslide prone areas in Murang’a County should be on high alert,” he advised.

Floods have wreaked havoc countrywide in the past two months.

Tana River County has been the worst affected, with 150,000 people being displaced and 16 killed by end of April, according to Government data.

Masinga dam has started overflowing after it reached full capacity following heavy rains experienced in the region.

The spillage was going at 70 cubic metres per second, according to power producer KenGen officials, and was being discharged to River Tana and other dams - Kaburu, Gitaru, Kindaruma and Kiambere downstream.

Spillage from the other four dams is also ongoing, to prevent overflow of water.

Johnson Ndege, the chief engineer at Masinga dam, said water levels now stand at 1,056.68 cubic metres above its maximum level of 1,056.50 cubic metres. Before the rains in March, the levels were 1,038 cubic metres.

Masinga, which generates about 30MW of hydropower, is the country’s largest dam that acts as the main reservoir for the Seven Forks Dams.

The dams have in-built structures to make sure they do not overflow when full to the brim but rather spill over in a controlled manner.

Masinga spills over naturally while spillage in the other four dams is done manually.

“The walls of the dams are built in a manner that they cannot collapse in case of high inflows,” said Mr Ndege.

Two spillways

Masinga dam has two spillways in case of very high increase in water levels that can threaten the dam.

“The emergency spill way can only be used when water levels are high to threaten to spill over the ways. It has never happened, and so the spillage is normal,” he said.

Masinga receives its water from River Tana, Chania and other tributaries, while the other dams downstream have more than eight tributaries.

“The dams have helped much in terms of holding the water. It would have been disastrous had they not been there because the tributaries are major rivers that come from Mt Kenya region. The spillage is controlled and thus harmless,” he said.

This comes as the power producer issued alerts warning communities living downstream to be cautious and move to safer grounds.