Kenya’s government demolishes houses in flood-prone areas, offers $75 in aid

• The government informed thousands of people living near rivers, dams, and flood-prone areas to evacuate last week.
• Human Rights Watch has accused the government of providing an inadequate response.
• The number of affected people has risen to 235,000, with most living in camps.

In Kenya, the government has commenced bulldozing homes constructed in flood-prone areas and has promised evicted families the equivalent of $75 to relocate after a deadline passed to evacuate amid deadly rains.

In the capital, Nairobi, a bulldozer tore through iron-sheet walls as people watched in despair. Security forces with guns and batons stood guard and fired tear gas at some residents. The government informed thousands of people living near rivers, dams, and other flood-prone areas last week to vacate as heavy rains that have left 238 people dead in recent weeks continue to pound.

Most of those whose houses are demolished claim they do not know where to go, even though the government claims it notified them about options. Human Rights Watch has accused the government of providing an inadequate response.

“Now what are we going to do? We love our president, and that is why we support him. He should come to our aid,” Jekenke Jegeke told The Associated Press.

President William Ruto, who visited the vast Mathare informal settlement along the Nairobi River on Monday, announced that those whose houses had been demolished would be given 10,000 Kenyan shillings ($75) to assist them in resettling elsewhere.

Civil society groups reported that three people, including two children, died in Mathare after being run over by bulldozers during the demolitions — one before the president’s visit and two after it.

Last week, opposition leader Raila Odinga cautioned the government against demolishing more houses without having a resettlement plan in place. The number of those affected by the flooding in Kenya has risen to 235,000, with most of them living in camps.

On Tuesday, Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki reiterated an evacuation order to 200 families living in the Kijabe area, an hour’s drive from Nairobi, where about 60 people were killed and houses were swept away when the water broke through a blocked railway tunnel last week.

That disaster prompted the government to issue an evacuation order. It is not clear how many homes across Kenya have been demolished since then.

Meanwhile, Kenya’s Cabinet has announced that water levels in the country’s two major hydroelectric dams – Masinga and Kiambere – have risen to “historic levels,” prompting authorities to instruct people living downstream on the Tana River to evacuate.

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