Bodies were still being recovered in the Pokot region, 350 kilometres North-West of the capital Nairobi, after powerful walls of mud and rock swept away homes and buried people in their sleep on Saturday morning.
The death toll from floods and landslides in Kenya over the weekend has climbed to 52, an official said on Monday, according to AFP.
Bodies were still being recovered in the Pokot region, 350 kilometres North-West of the capital Nairobi, after powerful walls of mud and rock swept away homes and buried people in their sleep on Saturday morning.
West Pokot governor, John Lonyangapuo, said a mother and her three children were among those found by rescuers sifting through the devastation.
“The number of people confirmed dead now is 52,” he told reporters on Monday, adding that some had been buried and others taken to the mortuary.
Kenya’s Interior Ministry said that army and police helicopters had been sent to West Pokot where the initial death toll was around 30.
Rescue efforts were delayed because roads and bridges had been cut off after streams turned into raging torrents, and Lonyangapuo said transport remained a problem.
The Kenya Meteorological Department has warned that more heavy rainfall is expected to lash parts of country until Tuesday, including in West Pokot, and urged people to be on high alert for landslides.