Senate majority leader Kipchumba Murkomen has called for urgent intervention over landslides that have caused untold suffering in West Pokot and Elgeyo Marakwet counties.
In a Senate sitting on Tuesday, April 21, the Elgeyo-Marakwet Senator rallied senators to promise to pool together resources to support landslide victims, many who have been left homeless and without food.
Murkomen told the Senate that residents of Sigor Constituency (West Pokot) and Marakwet East (Elgeyo Marakwet) were in dire need of aid after the deadly landslides left a death toll of over 20 persons with several others missing.
He pointed out that the country has been experiencing heavy rains, and as a result, the West Pokot and Elgeyo Marakwet counties had experienced massive destruction resulting from the landslide in the two counties, more adversely at Chesogon Shopping Centre on April 19, 2020.
"The landslides also left a trail of deaths with over 20 persons including 4 police officers confirmed dead and over fifteen persons missing.
"Residents are continuing to struggle with lack of housing, swollen rivers and destroyed roads that have left certain areas inaccessible," Murkomen stated.
He highlighted that despite previous reports indicating that the two counties were prone to landslides, due to environmental degradation, residents who have built their livelihood in the area have continued to live there, having nowhere else to go.
Murkomen appreciated the efforts the national government had demonstrated towards the disaster, however, stating it was not enough.
Watch Murkomen's statement at the Senate below:
"I wish to commend the government for the quick efforts undertaken to manage the current situation. However, little or no effort has been made to account for the over 15 persons missing as a result of the landslide,
"Search and recovery has been left largely to the locals who are ill-equipped to undertake such an exercise," Murkomen stated.
"While I appreciate the effort from the government, I believe that much more should be done to manage the situation, including putting in place measures to relocate the population to safer grounds and to upgrade the environment to prevent further incidences of this nature from happening," he added.
Murkomen called upon the Senate Standing Committee on Land, Environment and Natural Resources to take up the matter with the national government and reveal measures being undertaken to ensure all persons residing in the areas were accounted for.
He asked that the committee and the government to explain the measures put in place to identify alternative land for resettling the affected persons.
Murkomen sought to know if there was any form of compensation that would be afforded to the families and victims following the loss of property to the landslides.
He called upon the committee to explain the procedure with which the state would renovate or rebuild learning institutions destroyed, namely; Liter Girls High School, Chesogon Primary School, and Cheptany Primary School, as well as the roads that were damaged.
Murkomen further called for an explanation of the measures undertaken by the government to upgrade the environment in the area to prevent future incidents.
Among Senators who promised to support Murkomen's call to pool more resources to help the victims are Ledama Olekina (Narok), Aaron Cheruiyot (Kericho), Beatrice Kwamboka (Nominated) and Samson Cherargei (Nandi).
Murkomen thanked the Senators expressed willingness to the support affected families adding that he would provide official information on how they can do that.
