Every time the skyturnsgreyand thundertears through the village, families inWang' Chieng' location,Rachuonyo Northpanic.
It is an inevitablesign they mustgive up the safety oftheir housesand head toneighbouring schools, churches, and health facilitiesfor shelter.
Eachyear, the location has beenexperiencingsevere floodsdue toits flat topography, which allows water from higher ground toswamp theagricultural landon its wayto Lake Victoria.
Ruto orders KDF to join Maai Mahiu search for victims Turkana cut off as rains cause devastation across countryThe village ismarooned for several weeks and houses made of mudcrumble.
Living in such a condition is nearly impossible, so families have topitchtents or reside inclassrooms at Osodo, Kobala, and Kobuyaprimaryschools, which are on higher grounds.
Also
Ms Tekla Taabu is among thosewho have beenmaking the yearly trip tocamps each time it rains, and it is her third time being displaced in one year.
Like in previous years, ongoing April- May rains affected her, and she left her house in the last week of March to live at a camp.
'I spend at least two months every year outside my home when it rains, and the compound gets flooded. Each time it rains, I have to wait for the water level to go down before I can return to my house,'she says.
However, over the past 30 years she has lived in the location, Ms Taabu has noticed that the water level increases yearly and takes longer beforeebbing.
In the past, she could observe weather patterns and forecast when it would rain and the water level would recede.
'I could even tell the amount of rainfall we would receive and predict when I would return home. Today, however, the weather is unpredictable, and the floods keep increasing, making us stay in camps longer,'Ms Taabu says.
Also watch:
What the senior citizen is experiencing reflects what is happening in otherregionswhereseverefloods have surprisedmany.
In Nairobicounty, for example, deadlytorrentshave terrorised informal settlementswhere some people have died after being swept away by raging waters.
Floods havenowbecome the most devastating climate change risk with experts warning that more damageislikely to be witnessed in the coming years if no intervention isput in placeto mitigate thesituation.
Mr Clifford Omondi, a climatologist and a member of the Environment Institute of Kenya, says the country largely reacts during floods rather than being proactive beforesuchdisastersstrike.
'There is inadequate preparedness before, during and after floods. What we are experiencing now clearly shows that there was no preparedness to deal with the effects of floods,'hesays.
Also
Floods disrupt the provision of services when roads, electricity poles and socialamenitiesare damaged.
To a large extent, it leads to the loss of lives.
Mr Omondisaysmost devolved units only spend funds during flood recovery phase after the damageattributing this challenge to failureby regionalgovernments to formulate and enact climate-sensitive policies.
'County governments do not have proper legislation, frameworks, and development plans that reference resilience to protect infrastructure against unforeseen climate risks,'Mr Omondi says.
Zero preparednessAccording to the climate expert, some countries have legislation and policies on climate change butonly on paper.
Hesaysall devolved units should haveTown and Building Climatology, whichdeals with the reciprocal influences ofstructuresand settlements on the one hand and regional climatic conditions on the other.
It advocates for building resilience in infrastructure to respond to and withstand effects of climate shocks.
'Different stakeholders need to share a common vision to ensure events associated with climate change are properly mitigated. Floods expose infrastructure to structural damage, wearing out and edging out quickly, thus increasing maintenance and replacement costs,'Mr Omondi says.
