Anger mounts as Kenyans left homeless and searching for loved ones swept away in floods

CNN:  

When Julia Wanjiku put her son Isaac to bed after a day celebrating his third birthday, she didn’t realize she was also saying goodbye.

In the early hours of the following morning, Wanjiku awoke after hearing screams from her neighbors. A ferocious river of muddy water had blown through a blocked tunnel and was sweeping into the town of Mai Mahiu, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. As the water hit, her partner tried to hold on to their son but was overwhelmed — Isaac was swept away.

“We still don’t know where our son is,” Wanjiku told CNN, recalling the morning of April 29. She was among the survivors gathering at Ngeya Girls High School in Mai Mahiu on Tuesday last week. Supported by her mother and her aunt, she wept as she said she was at least grateful she survived. Isaac’s father was too devastated to speak.

The flooding in Mai Mahui has claimed the lives of at least 52 people, 18 of whom were children.

It’s a tragedy echoed across swaths of Kenya, including Nairobi and parts of the famous Maasai Mara wildlife reserve, after weeks of intensely heavy rainfall triggered flash floods that have now killed at least 228 people, left 72 others missing and displaced more than 212,000, according to statement Sunday from the office of the Kenyan President William Ruto.

Despite the huge toll the floods have already taken, the worst may be yet to come as rain keeps falling onto already saturated land and swollen rivers. “Meteorological reports paint a dire picture,” Ruto said on Friday.