More than 30,000 people were displaced after water levels in Lake Baringo rose amid ongoing heavy rains.
Tourists’ hotels were submerged and roads rendered impassable.
The swollen lake borders Baringo North, Tiaty and Baringo South subcounties and is ranked the second largest in the Great Rift Valley after Lake Turkana.
“I watched my own iron-sheet structured house get submerged while the situation worsens every day,” Loruk resident Wesley Cheptumo said on Tuesday.
He attributed the rising water levels to the ongoing heavy rains in most parts of the county since late last month.
“We cannot blame anybody for the situation, it all happened naturally. What we just need is humanitarian assistance,” Cheptumo said.
He is among thousands of residents, some of them young children, who are currently spending nights outside.
The victims are in dire need of items such as clothes, tents, utensils and drugs to cushion them from the natural calamity.
Currently, the increasing water levels are almost covering the area off Loruk-Marigat main highway connecting Kapedo, Turkana and Sudan.
Loruk trading centre, secondary and primary schools, Loruk and Kampi ya Samaki dispensaries are submerged.
Hundreds of patients are now stranded as they had to dig deeper into their pockets to get health services in Marigat town, 30 kilometres away.
“We don’t have anywhere to take our children for learning when schools reopen after the Covid-19 break next year,” resident Harun Cheburet said.
Water Rescue and Safety International chairman Joshua Chepsergon said the situation is getting out of hand.
He noted the attractive tourists’ private-owned multi-million hotels like Soi Safari Lodge, Lake Breeze, Desert Rose Camp and Block Hotel were already submerged, putting the county at risk of losing millions of revenue.
Chepsergon listed among other disintegrated premises in Kampi ya Samaki like Fish Factory, Childcare and the Ministry of Fisheries offices, and Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK).
Rivers burst
Furthermore, River Perkerra and El’Molo which feed water to the lake have also burst and changed their courses, escalating the floods.
The situation is largely attributed to the choking by overgrown Prosopis Juliflora (Mathenge) weed.
The most affected families are those living in Loruk, Ng’enyin, Komolion, Sintaan, Sandai, Lorobil, Ng’ambo, Ilng’arua, Loboi, Leswa, Nosukro and Lebunyaki and some shallow islands inside the lake.
Baringo Governor Stanley Kiptis termed it the worst disaster to ever happen in the lake. He appealed to the national government and international agencies to intervene.
Kiptis said his administration is also trying its best to help out the victims.
“The county cannot manage to contain the enormous situation alone, we need financial and technical support from partners,” Kiptis said.
He was backed by Tiaty M William Kamket, William Cheptumo (Baringo North) and Charles Kamuren (South).
The leaders urge the residents whose houses were submerged to consider moving faster to safer grounds to avoid loss of lives.
“We lost one elderly woman to floods in Tangulbei over the weekend and we don’t want an occurrence of such ugly incidents again,” Kamket said.
The MPs appealed for food and other items from both the national and county government saying it is hard for the residents to survive such extreme condition.
"The waters levels are currently overwhelming in Lake Baringo, Lake Bogoria and River Pekkera,” Kamuren said.
He said the main rivers feeding Lake Baringo changed their course, letting the water into people’s homes, farms and also damaged footpath bridges.
Edited by R.Wamochie