East Africa Community partner states are sitting on a time bomb as floods cause havoc in the region. Floods have killed 200 in Kenya, displaced 10,000 people and more than 65 deaths reported in Rwanda by Friday, as a second wave of locusts is expected to hit Kenya next month, threatening agriculture and food security in the region. This piles misery on the region’s 1,519 Covid-19 cases and almost 200 fatalities as of May 7, 2020. But it is the floods that are killing more people, and destroying farmlands raising fears of food insecurity, affecting the most vulnerable who are already dealing with effects of both the Coronavirus and poverty. Only last week, EAC’s Lake Victoria Commission executive secretary Ally-Said Matano warned people living in low laying areas around Lake Victoria in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania to move to higher ground as the lake basin experiences unprecedented high levels of water. This has caused massive flooding in the lake region.
In Kenya, Energy CS Charles Keter, warned at press conference in Nairobi on Wednesday that; “The Masinga dam has reached its full capacity. We are warning those who live along the River Tana, those in downstream counties of Garissa and Tana River to move away from the river.’’
