Turkana flood victims have called on the county, national government and humanitarian agencies to help save them from floods.
Residents of Nabute, Napetet, Borabuyong and Kawalase living along the Kawalase seasonal river and in Lodwar lowlands want the river to be diverted before it overflows, destroying their homes and livestock.
Usually parched Turkana is experiencing heavy rains.
Residents headed by youth leader of Napetet David Lokaale called river diversion.
“We are experiencing heavy rains that are ausing rivers to burst their bank, making most roads impassable, halting transport and displacing people," he said.
He said the Kawalase seasonal river is infamous for causing death and destruction but the government has done nothing.
“We cannot be told to move from the river and low land to upper grounds without having a place to go and stay since our homesteads were swept away by floods," he said.
Kawalase resident Titus Watima said residents turned up as a team to try to dig a trench to divert the water and keep it away from their land.
They want the government to build gabions, swales, trenches and sandbag barriers — better yet, divert the river.
Floods in Turkana have killed three people, thousands were displaced and many animals have swept away.
More than 2,000 households were forced to spend Friday night outside after heavy rains caused rivers to burst their banks, displacing residents.
Last month the Kawalase and Turkwel rivers in October flooded after heavy rains, halting business, transport, displacing people and killing more than 3,000 shoats.
Turkana Governor Josphat Nanok said the flooding affected most regions and damaged boreholes, Lodwar livestock and fish markets, Lodwar Prison infrastructure, government buildings such as the Lands office where records and equipment were destroyed.
“This flooding has not been experienced before; the water was very high," Nanok said. "Nine of 12 boreholes supplying water to 70,000 people in Lodwar were destroyed.
"We're trying our best to fix them quickly and avoid a water shortage."
(Edited by V. Graham)
