Kenyan floods kill 15, displace thousands

[TexasStooge]

NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) - At least 15 people have drowned and several thousand others have been displaced by floods caused by heavy rains that have pounded Kenya in the past week, police said.

"At least 15 people have drowned since continuous heavy rains started pounding the whole country on Friday, with deaths reported in Nairobi, the coast, Rift Valley, Eastern and Nyanza provinces," police spokesman Jasper Ombati told AFP.

"These are deaths that were reported and confirmed by police," Ombati said, warning that the situation might worsen if the rains continued.

Ombati said several thousand people had been displaced in parts of Kenya, mostly in the flood-prone west.

On Tuesday the head of National Disaster Operations, Bonventure Wendo, said raging floods had forced thousands of people living in high-density slums in Nairobi to move to higher grounds.

The Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) also warned that the situation might worsen if the rains fail to subside by the weekend.

"It is anticipated that the rains will reduce by the end if this week but if they continue, then the situations will worsen in terms of people drowning and being displaced," the KRCS' head of Disaster Response, Farid Abdulkadir, told AFP by telephone.

Abdulkadir said the government and aid groups were working round the clock to deliver humanitarian supplies to thousands of people who had fled their homes and were threatened by food shortages and water-bourne diseases.

"We are providing non-food items for all people who have been displaced across the country. (The) United Nations World Food Programme and the president's office are taking care of food and other nutritional needs, while the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the African Medical Research Foundation are assisting in terms of health," Abdulkadir added.

The meteorological office warned last month that the country would receive heavier than usual rainfall during the April-May wet season.

Despite the non-stop downpour essential commuter railway services to Nairobi's suburbs, which had been suspended because of the rains, have resumed, the Daily Nation newspaper reported on Wednesday.