Death toll from burst Kenya dam rises to 32: Interior ministry

The death toll from a burst Kenyan dam has risen to 32, interior ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka said on Thursday.

Floodwater from a flower-farm dam that burst after days of torrential rain in Kenya’s Rift Valley and swept through 450 homes, the local governor said on Thursday.

Nakuru county governor Lee Kinyanjui told Reuters as many as 2,000 people had been affected by the rupturing of the dam on Wednesday night.

Engineers had been sent to carry out safety checks on three other nearby reservoirs.

East Africa, much of which suffered severe drought last year, has been hit by heavy rain over the last two months that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and Uganda.

Even before the dam-burst, rains had killed 132 people and displaced 222,000 in Kenya alone, according to the government.

The St. John Ambulance service said at least 21 people had been killed downstream of the dam.

The Kenya Red Cross said 39 people had been rescued from the mud.

“The water has caused huge destruction of both life and property. The extent of the damage has yet to be ascertained,” Kinyajui said.(Reuters/NAN)