For the majority of Kenyans, rainfall is often a source of celebration, signalling a new season for planting crops, growing pasture, and harvesting water for commercial, domestic, or livestock use.
For many, the rains provide an opportunity to secure livelihoods through agricultural production while easing water scarcity.
However, this is not the case for many residents of Garissa County and Tana River County, especially those living along the Tana River.
To them, the rainy season often brings mass displacement caused by flooding, destruction of livelihoods as farms are swept away, and disruption of education for their children.
During every season, residents in these counties closely follow flood alerts on the radio and television, preparing to move to higher ground before floods strike their villages.
Sometimes, the flooding is not even as a result of rains in the region, it is when rains fall in the River Tana Upstream counties or the controlled release of water from the seven folk dams ( Masinga, Kaburu, Gitaru, Kindaruma and Kiambere) which causes the swelling and breaking of the River banks leaving behind a trail of destruction.
The situation remains the same this March–May rainy season. According to the Garissa County Steering Group, as of May 6, at least 1,000 households in Garissa Township had been displaced by floods, while more than 60,000 others across the county remained at risk of displacement.
Those affected are mainly from Bulla Punda, Bulla Kamor, Bulla Sheikh, Bakuyu, and Ziwani villages and are camping at the Farmer Training Centre (FTC), Hyuga and Police Training Centre internal displacement camps.
It is around 9 am. At the FTC camp, we meet Mzee Issa Malio with his wife and grandchildren in a ragged, makeshift tent that hosts six members of his family.
He has been here for the last week since floods hit his Ziwani village, which is barely 2 kilometres from the camp.
Malio tells us that their source of livelihood has been destroyed. Their farms in the village have been swept off by the floods, and now they are left with nothing. Not even the clothes.
“We have a big problem here in Ziwani because it is also where we have a lot of benefits for our livelihood. We have had farms along the river and our people burn charcoal from the Mathenge trees, which brings in some income,” Malio narrates.
“Sometimes flood waters reach our houses at night when you are sleeping and by the time you wake up, everything, including our clothes and kitchen items, has been swept off. We have been here since 28th last month, although waters have now subsided, we are still worried because we have that more dams in the Tana river upstream will be released,” he added.
Sleeping in the tents has become a nightmare for many displaced families, especially because they are old and full of slits. When it rains, water flows directly into the tents, leaving residents exposed and their belongings soaked.
“You cannot sleep here without a mosquito net, which we do not have. Our children are now sick, some it is diarrhea, others are vomiting every time while others it is fever. We hear that there is an outbreak of dengue fever,” Malio says.
“We appeal to the government and well-wishers to come and help us with food, mosquito nets, blankets and even cooking utensils,” he adds.
Asked why they have not moved to permanently higher grounds as advised by the county governments, Malio says that the areas they are asked to move to are unsafe due to inter-community conflicts, hence they cannot risk their lives without proper safety measures.
Khadija Swale’s tent is just next to the Malio’s. We meet her washing her morning dishes and she paints a gloomy picture of life at the IDP camps.
“Our lives have been about moving here and there. When there are floods, we come here and when the waters subside, we go back. Even our children are also affected because the schools also flood, disrupting their education,” Khadija relates.
“Our children here are prone to diseases because we do not even have toilets. When our children have a long call, we do not have a place to dispose of the stool, and even us adults have no place to respond to the call of nature,” she says.
Abubakar Mohamed Ali is the headman for Bakuyu village where he says at least 200 households have been affected by floods.
Ali who is appealing for government’s intervention, reveals that food is their biggest challenge.
Daud Ahmed, the county coordinator for the Kenya Red Cross in Garissa, says that they have been coordinating a multi-stakeholder assessment of the floods in the county to get the correct data for intervention measures.
Daud Ahmed, the county coordinator for the Kenya Red Cross
In the meantime, he is calling on other development partners to pool resources and support residents who have been negatively affected by the ongoing flooding in the region.
“We will do a differentiated assistance for the most vulnerable households affected by the floods with non-food items, wash supplies, as well as food items, but currently we do not have food,” Ahmed said.
“As KenyaRedcross, we are also doing evacuation services for the people who are marooned or have been surrounded by flood waters. We appeal to the farms doing farming along the river line to avoid those areas because it is not safe,” he added.
The post Tales of suffering: Garissa, Tana River residents endure perennial floods appeared first on KBC Digital.