On April 29, a dam burst in the Mai Mahiu area of central Kenya, killing at least 42 people.
The Old Kijabe Dam burst, sending floodwaters into homes and blocking a major road in the Great Rift Valley, local police said.
Images posted on social media in Kenya showed trees toppled by floodwaters and several cars trapped between logs and mud. The deaths brought the death toll from heavy rains and flooding that have hit Kenya since last month to more than 100.
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| Mud after a dam burst in Mai Mahiu, Central Kenya. (Source: Ntvkenya) |
Since March, El Nino has brought unusually heavy rains to Kenya, killing 76 people. Flash floods have submerged roads and neighborhoods, displacing more than 130,000 people in 24,000 households, many of them in the capital Nairobi, according to government figures released on April 27. Sixty-four schools in Nairobi, about 30 percent of all public schools, were severely damaged by the floods.
Also on April 29, Kenya announced that it would postpone the reopening of schools for a week due to heavy rains causing severe flooding in the East African country.
Schools were originally scheduled to reopen on April 29, after the mid-term break, but torrential rains have affected many educational establishments, forcing the Ministry of Education to instruct schools to remain closed.
Speaking to reporters, Education Minister Ezekiel Machogu said heavy rains had severely damaged some schools, making face-to-face teaching impossible for the safety of teachers and students. The ministry has decided to postpone the reopening of all primary and secondary schools by a week, until May 6.
East Africa also suffered record flooding during the rainy season in late 2023. According to scientists, climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent and intense./.
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