'Nature fights back' as Kenya battles deluge

Everything feels sodden successful Kenya's capital, Nairobi, and beyond.

It seems arsenic if the rainfall has been falling without respite for six weeks, and the interaction has been devastating.

So acold much than 120 radical person mislaid their lives, including astatine slightest 50 aft a dam burst connected Monday a abbreviated region from Nairobi.

This is the bedewed season, but the metropolis has been experiencing acold much rainfall than what is usually expected, which has been enactment down to the El Niño upwind phenomenon.

Rivers and sewers person overflowed, roads person go waterways and homes person been destroyed.

Flooding successful the metropolis is not antithetic but the sheer standard of this year's deluge has exposed longer word problems with the mode Nairobi has developed.

"You can't incorporate nature. It doesn't enactment similar that," Prof Alfred Omenya, an municipality readying and situation expert, told the BBC.

He says that overmuch of the metropolis sits connected apical the Nairobi River's floodplain, which cuts done the capital. A fig of different rivers and streams besides travel done Nairobi.

A decently developed drainage strategy whitethorn person been capable to cope, but arsenic the metropolis has grown implicit the past period from 100,000 residents to today's 4.5 cardinal the infrastructure has not kept up.

Compounding the occupation is that little than fractional of the residents are connected to a sewage system. In slum areas, unfastened sewers are common, which overflow erstwhile it floods.

Drains person besides go blocked arsenic radical dispose of their household rubbish.

Open spaces person disappeared arsenic much and much buildings person gone up - some successful slums and planned areas.

As much factual covers the world determination are less places to sorb the water, and it runs disconnected - overwhelming the drains and rivers.

As a effect the roads person go portion of the drainage system, Prof Omenya said.

He blames "clueless enactment that started from the assemblage times".

Unplanned settlements person been allowed to make astir the rivers, sometimes disrupting their earthy flow.

Many of the slum areas successful the city, specified arsenic Mukuru and Mathare, person been built connected marginal onshore on stream valleys.

Last Wednesday, the authorities retrieved a twelve bodies of radical who had drowned successful the Mathare stream pursuing dense rains the erstwhile evening.

In the aftermath of the downpour, astir of the houses successful the country were flooded, with immoderate residents trapped connected the roofs of their houses.

Upmarket estates were besides hit, including immoderate that person not been prone to flooding successful the past.

The antheral who runs the city, Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja, said the rainfall levels person been precise high, and blamed the encroachment connected the onshore surrounding the rivers for the flooding crisis.

The politician has present suspended approvals for gathering developments and excavations.

But the bigger task mightiness beryllium clearing oregon improving the slum areas.

The authorities does person a program to physique affordable and decent housing, but past upgrading projects person not met the burgeoning demand.

In the meantime, residents person been asked to determination to higher crushed for their ain safety.

President William Ruto has said that radical surviving successful unsafe areas astir the state volition beryllium moved to onshore provided by the National Youth Service, portion the authorities plans a semipermanent solution.

He said the subject and the nationalist authorities had been mobilised to enactment with counties to enactment those successful distress.

Neighbouring Kiambu county, parts of which are connected a stream basin and person been affected by the floods, has besides announced it volition instrumentality measures to mitigate the situation, including gathering inspections.

In the past, buildings successful and astir the metropolis person been demolished arsenic a mode to code irregular developments - but often with small effect.

Some of developments successful the metropolis and its environs person been criticised for impeding the travel of water, which past finds its mode to different areas.

Construction of buildings connected wetlands has besides been a large problem.

In 2018, the multimillion-dollar South End Mall successful Langata and the Ukay Mall successful Westlands were demolished arsenic portion of a run to reclaim wetlands.

"Now we person galore homes built adjacent to rivers truthful flooded. Walls person collapsed each over… Don't spell against nature. It volition combat back," Robert Alai, a Nairobi region assembly legislator wrote connected X, formerly Twitter.

Before the astir caller floods, Mr Sakaja had defended the improvement of high-rise buildings successful immoderate residential areas, saying the lone mode Nairobi would make was to physique up.

His stance had travel amid disapproval that the developments were straining an already overwhelmed infrastructure. He has present issued a directive stopping each gathering improvement approvals "until we tin reappraisal each those that person been issued and are continuing successful the city".

A fig of MPs besides criticised the politician implicit metropolis management, citing the sewage and flooding crisis.

Mr Sakaja has defended himself, saying the disapproval was politically motivated.

Outspoken Senator Samson Cherargei from the ruling conjugation said the politician was not to blasted arsenic "the occupation we are having begun successful 1963, you cannot resoluteness it now".

Some of the problems tin beryllium traced backmost to the origins of Nairobi - meaning a "place of chill waters" successful the Maasai connection - and the information that it was not considered a suitable spot for ample numbers of radical to unrecorded in.

It started arsenic a railway depot nether the British assemblage authorities successful the precocious 1890s. The engineers who worked connected the tract called the country a "swamp", with soggy onshore and "unsanitary conditions".

Years later, assemblage authoritative Sir Charles Eliot said Nairobi sat successful "a slump with a precise bladed furniture of ungraded oregon rock. The ungraded was water-logged during the greater portion of the year".

Nevertheless, the metropolis developed into an charismatic metropolis with bully weather, a batch of greenery and a nationalist park.

But its drainage occupation has persisted.

An archetypal masterplan by the assemblage authorities took into information the laic of the onshore and designed measures to forestall disasters. There person been astatine slightest 2 different blueprints post-independence to day - but they person mostly not been implemented.

This season's floods amusement that arsenic rainfall could get much aggravated arsenic a effect of clime alteration a caller program is urgently needed, Prof Omenya said.

But the mean city-dweller is near mopping up, hoping that the rains subside.