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With shovels, rescuers search for increasing variety of Kenya flood victims

Rescuers were digging through mud with shovels on Tuesday to recuperate victims' bodies as the number of individuals still missing out on increased progressively after rains set off heavy flooding and landslides across Kenya.

At least 48 people were killed and a more 84 stayed missing out on after a mudslide and flash floods hit the town of Mai Mahiu in main Kenya early on Monday, the Kenya Red Cross stated.

Survivors in Mai Mahiu explained an attack of water that swept away houses, vehicles and railway tracks.

When I unlocked, the water gushed in and made its way through the kitchen, said resident Anne Gachie.

My hubby managed to rapidly manoeuvre and go out. My children who remained in the next room were purged of your house by the force of the water.

Tabitha Wanja lost 8 members of her household, consisting of her seven-month-old niece. This is a bad dream ... We have lost almost all our relative. This is the darkest moment for us, she stated before breaking into tears.

In all, at least 169 people have actually passed away across Kenya considering that last month due to heavy rains and flooding.

More than 190,000 people have been required from their homes, consisting of 147,000 in the capital Nairobi, according to the president's workplace. Numerous parts of the nation ought to anticipate even more heavy rains in the coming days, it stated.

Those citizens who are living in landslide-prone areas, we are asking you to leave, Kenyan President William Ruto said in a speech while going to flood survivors in Mai Mahiu.

The risk of losing lives is genuine, he stated, including that he was advising the military to assist in the search for victims.

Lots more individuals have actually been eliminated and hundreds of thousands displaced by heavy rainstorms in Tanzania and Burundi, with scientists saying climate modification is causing more extreme and regular extreme weather events.

The eastern Kenyan county of Garissa, where four people were killed when their boat capsized over the weekend and 23 others were saved from the floodwaters, has reported 16 individuals missing, the interior ministry said.

At least 120 individuals were eliminated in Kenya late in 2015 by flooding brought on by the El Nino weather phenomenon. Those rains followed the worst dry spell that large parts of East Africa had experienced in decades.

(source: Reuters)