Hundreds of families in Nairobi's informal settlements have been left homeless and are now forced to spend their nights in the cold and in unhygienic conditions after floods swept through the area, destroying homes and submerging entire neighbourhoods.
The floods also claimed the lives of three people in Nairobi's Mathare Phase 4 estate after a wall collapsed on them following the heavy rains that pounded the city on Monday night.
Two of the three who included a mother and her children succumbed to their injuries under the rubble, and the other one passed away while being taken to the hospital.
In Nairobi's Mukuru Kwa Ruben estate, hundreds of houses were swept by the ravaging floodwaters, leaving the families stranded.
Further, the residents' attempt to flee the affected houses has been hindered by the huge volumes of water that made it impossible for them to walk or even swim across.
Over 500 families had been displaced at the time of publishing this article, with their efforts to rescue their property rendered futile.
According to some of the affected residents, they were woken up by the arrival of the floodwaters in the wee hours of the night, and they could not save their belongings, save for the children.
The residents also raised alarm over the risk of the situation deteriorating due to the influx of industrial and harmful waste, which posed a significant risk to them.
They additionally blamed the county government of Nairobi, under the leadership of Governor Johnson Sakaja, for the failure to construct proper sewerage systems within the affected areas.
Last year, hundreds lost their lives and property during the April flooding, and despite Sakaja's promise to address the same, nothing had been done a year later.
''This problem has been here over time. The county government has been pledging to construct the sewerage system, and nothing has ever materialised. The waste comes all the way from KNH, risking the thousands of livelihoods here," James Mwangi Njoroge, a resident who has lived in the area for the last 30 years, stated.
So far, neither humanitarian nor government agencies have responded to the situation in Mukuru Kwa Ruben. However, in Mathare, rescue operations are underway.
On Tuesday, the Director of the Kenya Meteorological Department, David Gikungu, announced that Kenyans should brace for intense rains over the next seven days, between Tuesday, April 22, and April 28.
Gikungu, in a notice to members of the public, revealed that the heavy rains were expected, particularly in the Central Highlands, including Nairobi, Western Kenya, the Lake Victoria Basin, the Southeastern Lowlands, the Central and South Rift Valley, and Northeastern Kenya.
