Three killed in Kibera from floods caused by ongoing rains

A mother and her two children died from flooding caused by the ongoing rains in Nairobi.

This is even as the county government claims to have cleared drainages in flood prone areas with the work being 70 percent done.

Kibera residents on Wednesday morning discovered the body of a middle aged woman who is said to have met her demise after Nairobi River broke its banks and swept her away.

According to Kibera sub county commander Michael Muchiri, the woman and her two babies were swept away by the floods following the heavy rains on Tuesday evening. The bodies of the two children are yet to be recovered.

It is suspected that blocked drainage systems could have led to the flooding.

The sub county commander has now dispatched a search and rescue team in a bid to find the two bodies.

City Hall has however remained tight lipped on the issue with the officials engaging in blame games over who is responsible for addressing the flooding issue.

Roads, public works and infrastructure CEC, Hitan Majevdia yesterday pointed an accusing finger at the Environment department saying that it was the one in charge of dealing with the flooding in the city.

“I was not aware that people had lost their lives but that is very unfortunate. However, I think the relevant department to address the issue and give an announcement on the next course of action is the environment department,” said Majevdia.

Calls to the environment department went unanswered by the time of going to press.

City residents have also taken to social media to express their frustrations due to flooding in the capital.

Following the rains experienced on Tuesday, Ojijo road, Woodvale grove in westlands, yaya centre, south C and sections of Thika road were affected by floods.

“This section of Ojijo Road is constantly affected by flooding whenever it rains, what happened to the much hyped drainage clearance that the county government purported to undertake?” sought one resident via social media.

Last week, City Hall announced that it had embarked on a mass unclogging exercise of the city drainages and had worked on 70 percent of flood prone areas.

They include South C Shopping Centre, Mathare, Huruma, Loresho, Muthangari and Kileleshwa Ring Road interchange, Lavington along Chalbi Drive, Globe Roundabout, Nairobi West, Ruai, Utawala, Mukuru Slums and Kibera.

Other flood hotspots include Nairobi CBD, Donholm, Githurai, Kahawa West, Karen, Kawangware, Kayole, Kibra, Lang’ata, Mathare, Njiru, Pioneer Estate, Ridgeways, Ruai, Runda, South B, South C, Thome, Umoja and Zimmerman.