OF THE
TIMES
Seventy-six people in Kenya have lost their lives to floods triggered by torrential monsoon downpours since March, the government said Saturday, warning residents "to brace for even heavier rainfall".
Kenya and its East African neighbours have been battered by stronger than usual rain in recent weeks, compounded by the El Nino weather pattern.
Flash floods have submerged roads and neighbourhoods, leading to the displacement of more than 130,000 people across 24,000 households, many of them in the capital Nairobi, government spokesman Isaac Mwaura said Saturday.
"We deeply regret to announce the tragic loss of an additional six lives in the last 12 hours bringing the total to 76," he said, adding that 29 Kenyans had suffered injuries and 19 been reported missing.
Flooding in Tanzania has killed 155 people and left at least 236 injured, the country's Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said on Thursday.
More than 10,000 houses have been damaged and upwards of 200,000 people have been affected, Majaliwa told the Tanzanian parliament in the capital Dodoma.
The prime minister added that "the heavy El Nino rains, accompanied by strong winds and flooding and landslides in various parts of the country, have caused adverse effects."
"These include deaths, damage to crops, homes property, infrastructure like roads, bridges and railways," Majaliwa said.
The flooding has also affected Kenya, which shares a border with Tanzania in East Africa.
As of Tuesday, at least 32 people had died from the flooding in Kenya, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHR).
Comment: Update May 2
Breakingthenews.net reports: