State must not forget plight of flood victims
The rains are usually a blessing; they make food crops and pasture thrive and provide water for use.
But as they say, too much of anything is bad— and in the ongoing downpour, dozens of Kenyans have died, thousands displaced and property destroyed by floods at a time the national focus is on the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
The misery visited on hapless, helpless residents of Kisumu, Budalang’i, Naivasha, Laikipia, Tana River, Garissa, Elgeyo Marakwet, West Pokot and Baringo is of unimaginable proportions.
Sevaral families, including children and the elderly, are now living in makeshift structures and at a risk of contracting diseases and exposed to the elements.
Besides lives, the families have lost homes, livestock and crops to the floods. They lack food, shelter, medicine and security. The future for them is also bleak, having lost their crops to the floods.
For this lot, they also have to face the Corona threat. More worrying is the fact in the situation, it is almost impossible to ensure social distancing as a preventive measure against the virus.
Some leaders from the affected areas have asked the government to declare the floods a national disaster.
More than 40,000 people are feared displaced in Busia, 2,000 in Kakamega and 10,000 in Siaya.
In Kisumu, an estimated 32,000 people had been displaced by floods, mainly in Nyando and Muhoroni. 
In Baringo, more than 4,000 locals in 10 villages bordering Lake Baringo have been displaced after the lake burst its banks over the weekend.
The unsettling fact is that the flood crisis has not been given the attention it deserves. As a country, our emergency response has been wanting—from droughts, famine, mudslides and desert locusts.
Response to disasters has been turned into mere photo opportunities for government officials as they make pronouncements and dole out relief supplies to affected people.
There is little effort to seek a permanent solution to the recurrent, but preventable disasters. And of course, those responsible are never called to account. For instance, what happened to the dykes project that was billed as the permanent solution to the Budalang’i flooding?
Even as the country focuses on the coronavirus pandemic, the agony caused to families by floods should not ignored.
