Red Cross says 22,000 households in Mt Kenya affected by floods

Motorists stuck in a traffic sanal-up in in a section of the road between Duka Moja trading center and Suswa girls high school that was blocked by heavy mud and debris from Mt Suswa. [George Sayagie, Standard]

The heavy downpour in Mt Kenya region has left a trail of death and destruction.

According to the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), the rains caused extensive damage to property and farmlands in the region.

Many residents in low-lying areas were forced to move to higher ground after their homes were marooned by floods.

KRCS head in Mt Kenya region Esther Wambui Chege, noted that 22,000 households were affected by floods.

The worst hit counties are Kirinyaga, Nyeri, Meru, and Embu, where a section of families are now dependent on aid after their crops were swept away by floods.

Wambui called on Kenyans to donate food and non-food items to the affected families.

"Most of the affected families, some of whom are still accommodated in schools and religious institutions, require urgent supplies of clothing, bedding, mosquito nets among other items," she said.

She spoke on Tuesday after KRCS in collaboration with members of the Young Muslim Association donated assorted foodstuff to affected families in the sprawling Kiandutu slums in Thika, Kiambu county.

Wambui urged families to vacate flood-prone areas or those at risk of experiencing landslides.

Fatuma Abdi Ali from Young Muslim Association said the donation is a flood-response call to Kenyans to hold each other's back at a time when most families are struggling to put food on the table.

"Every Kenyan has a personal responsibility of sharing and caring for their struggling neighbours in as much we continue to agitate for government's action and other well-wishers to come on boar," she said.

The donated maize flour, wheat flour, rice, beans, cooking oil, soap and salt among others.