Nairobi flood deaths reach 24 as families urged to identify bodies

The death toll from heavy rains and flooding in Kenya's capital Nairobi and elsewhere has nearly doubled to 42, the government said in a statement issued late on Sunday, with one witness saying on Monday his friend died while seated in his car.

Intense rains on Friday unleashed heavy and widespread flooding, causing some people to drown, washing away vehicles and disrupting traffic at the country's largest airport.

Emergency workers from various agencies including the military were still conducting search and rescue operations across the country, Geoffrey Kiringa Ruku, minister for public service and human capital development said in the statement.

"Search mission is still in progress by the multi-agency emergency response teams with the aim of ensuring that bodies of all the flood victims are found and retrieved," he said.

In Nairobi, resident Eric Orimbo said his friend, Eric Mutua together with his colleague died while inside a car that was submerged while stalled on a road on Friday. His friend, Mutua, sent him text updates until late on Friday and then went quiet.

“They were retrieved in the car and seemingly they were just seated in their chairs. Somebody... the investigation officer tells us that, he found them in a posture as if they were sleeping,” Orimbo said, after identifying his friend's remains at the Nairobi funeral home on Monday.

The floods had also done extensive damage to infrastructure and livelihoods.

The Nairobi county chief officer public-health, Tom Nyakaba said that they were going to commence demolitions on all structures constructed along river lines and riparian lands to ease the flow of the Nairobi river and avert more deaths in the future.

"We as the County Government of Nairobi have come to an agreement that all these illegal structures shall be demolished. We cannot continue losing lives because of few selfish people who want to benefit themselves."

Scientists say global warming is worsening floods and droughts across East Africa by concentrating rainfall into shorter, more intense bursts. A 2024 World Weather Attribution study found climate change had made devastating rains in the region twice as likely as before.

-Reuters