Kenyans suffering in El Nino camps as thousands cry out for help

Jilo Daido an Internaly displaced person explainsts some points to the Media outide his makeshift at Kibiso area in the County on Wednesday,09th December,2015.He is among the displaced persons camping in the area after floods from Meru hills swept away their homes .PHOTO BY MAARUFU MOHAMED/STANDARD

Badilisha Amagomba, 19, sits in a makeshift shelter made of twigs, tattered sacks and worn out polythene bags, holding her sick one-year-old son at Haluva IDP camp in Tana Delta, Tana River County.

Her son, Raymond Amuma, and another five children in the 6 by 4 foot shelter are suffering from chest pain, coughs and diarrhoea. Sadly, this scene is replicated many times in the area.

Kenya Red Cross records indicate that 8,086 households or 43,184 people have been displaced from their homes in Tana River County after River Tana burst its banks last week due to the heavy rains pounding upstream regions.

The humanitarian body says there are 40 camps for the internally displaced people in the region, and there is a dire need for relief food and medical supplies. Most of the camps are in mosquito infested bushy areas of the county.

Deplorable conditions

Local community organisations estimate that about 25,000 of the displaced are children.

A local community health nurse, Zacharia Maru, says most children are at risk of communicable diseases such as cholera, typhoid and other illnesses like malaria as a result of the deplorable living conditions.

“We have diagnosed some of them with malaria and pneumonia, but given that there are no toilets and clean drinking water, we are afraid that a waterborne disease could break out in the camps,” says Maru who runs a private clinic in Haluva.

The shortage of medical facilities in the area makes the situation even more perilous.

“My son has been ailing for the last three days, but I have no money to take him to hospital.

“The only medical officials who have visited us since we arrived here three weeks ago are those administering the polio vaccine,” says Badilisha.

The young mother is pregnant and is worried about her unborn child. She says they are yet to receive help from the county and national governments.

The children lying next to her son - Lucy Eziel (six), Olive Dambale (12), Adeline Dambala (ten), Shahb Babo (15) and Ken Gudini - have not received medical assistance either.

“We are desperate and don’t know what to do or who to run to because the children are becoming weaker every day,” says Jillo Daido, a father with a sick child at Haluba A camp.

Other camps across the Tana Delta include Kitere (which has 218 households displaced from Garsen West); Miyesa Camp with 175 households from Garsen Central; Korlabe A, B and C; Vumbwe; Madogo and Masabubu.

“We moved here after our crops and all that we owned were destroyed and we thought that our children would be safe, but I am now fearing for my children and grandchildren,” says elderly Grace Korasu.

Kenya Red Cross manager in charge of Tana River and Kitui counties, Gerald Bombe, says Bububu, masabubu, Boji and Hola in Galole Constituency and Idsowe, Kipao and Kipini in Tana Delta Sub-County were the areas most affected by the floods.

More than 14 villages in Tana Delta have been washed away.

“The county and national governments are yet to begin the distribution of relief food but we have distributed non-food items to those in th emost dire situation,” says Bombe.

“We have documented the number of those displaced after the river burst its banks. Others moved here after they were warned to move out of their houses. In total there are 43,184 IDPs in the Tana region.”

Tana River Governor Hussein Dado recently said that his administration had set aside Sh90 million to cushion residents from the effects of the El Nino rains.

Yesterday, county communication director Galgallo Fayo said the county had started the distribution of relief food on Friday.

“Our plans were held back by State procedures on spending but the relief food has arrived,” said Fayo.

Last Monday, a government multi-agency team sent to the area cited the supply of medical services and drugs as a priority.

And community health officers and community-based organisations say children and the elderly are the most affected.

“The setup (of the camps) is very poor and the spacing is not right so it is easy for communicable to disease to be transmitted,” says Oketch Awuor, programme officer at Team and Team, a non-governmental agency.

He adds that the displaced families lack fresh water to drink, food and other essential non-food items such as mosquito nets, increasing the risk of malaria.