By using this website you agree that we use cookies. You can find out more in the privacy policy.
Bombay Durpun - 'It swept everything': Kenya villagers count toll of dam deluge
-
-
Choose a language
Automatically close in : 3
Wie gewohnt mit Werbung lesen
Nutzen Sie Bombay Durpun mit personalisierter Werbung, Werbetracking, Nutzungsanalyse und externen Multimedia-Inhalten. Details zu Cookies und Verarbeitungszwecken sowie zu Ihrer jederzeitigen Widerrufsmöglichkeit finden Sie unten, im Cookie-Manager sowie in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.
Use Bombay Durpun with personalised advertising, ad tracking, usage analysis and external multimedia content. Details on cookies and processing purposes as well as your revocation option at any time can be found below, in the cookie manager as well as in our privacy policy.
Utilizar Bombay Durpun con publicidad personalizada, seguimiento de anuncios, análisis de uso y contenido multimedia externo. Los detalles sobre las cookies y los propósitos de procesamiento, así como su opción de revocación en cualquier momento, se pueden encontrar a continuación, en el gestor de cookies, así como en nuestra política de privacidad.
Utilisez le Bombay Durpun avec des publicités personnalisées, un suivi publicitaire, une analyse de l'utilisation et des contenus multimédias externes. Vous trouverez des détails sur les cookies et les objectifs de traitement ainsi que sur votre possibilité de révocation à tout moment ci-dessous, dans le gestionnaire de cookies ainsi que dans notre déclaration de protection des données.
Utilizar o Bombay Durpun com publicidade personalizada, rastreio de anúncios, análise de utilização e conteúdo multimédia externo. Detalhes sobre cookies e fins de processamento, bem como a sua opção de revogação em qualquer altura, podem ser encontrados abaixo, no Gestor de Cookies, bem como na nossa Política de Privacidade.
The disaster struck in the dead of night, the villagers said, some still in shock over the deluge that engulfed their homes as a makeshift dam broke in Kenya's Rift Valley.
Text size:
At 85, Peter Murithi Mwangi had already lived through a world war and British colonial rule.
But as he gazed at his flood-damaged home, sadness etched across his face, he told AFP: "I have never seen anything like this."
Mwangi and his wife were fast asleep when he heard "a very loud" noise around 3:00 am on Monday (midnight GMT).
After weeks of heavy rainfall that had already cost dozens of lives in Kenya, he knew immediately that the sound spelled danger.
The water rushed in and swept away his phone, effectively trapping the elderly couple indoors, with no means of calling for help.
"We prayed, prayed and prayed," Mwangi said, before the water flowed further downhill, receding enough to allow them to leave their home in the village of Kamuchiri.
He was one of the lucky ones.
Rescuers -- many of them locals and victims themselves -- began searching for survivors before dawn broke.
But the disaster's deadly toll -- which stands at 45 and is expected to rise -- has stunned the close-knit community.
"I am so worried because so many people that we used to live and pray with have died," said Margaret Wangechi, a 52-year-old school teacher, who likened the dam burst to "an earthquake".
"As of now, we still haven't found some of the bodies and we are still looking for them," she told AFP, her voice shaking.
She said the dead included two children she used to teach.
- 'Bodies under the mud' -
Stephen Njihia Njoroge, a resident involved in the emergency efforts, said he and others had managed to retrieve bodies from the debris using hoes and in some cases, their bare hands.
"We collected some of the bodies... we don't know how many are under the mud," he said.
Some villagers tried to clear piles of mud from their homes. Others wandered around in a daze as they contemplated the damage.
Evidence of the devastation -- and the lives destroyed -- was everywhere.
Even the animals were not spared, with cattle carcasses lying next to broken branches and trunks.