According to the Kenyan government, more than 120,000 people were displaced, 22 others were injured and eight were reported missing.
Floods and heavy rains in Kenya have killed at least 70 people since mid-March, twice as many as reported earlier this week, according to a government spokesman.
Kenya and other countries in East Africa – a region particularly vulnerable to climate change – have been hit by heavy rains in recent weeks.
“The official number of fellow Kenyans who have regrettably lost their lives due to the floods is now 70,” government spokesman Isaac Mwaura said on X on Friday, after torrential rains killed 32 people in the capital Nairobi this week.
Fifteen people were killed in the Rift Valley region, the government also said in a report on Friday after a meeting of the country’s disaster management committee.
The report said more than 120,000 people were displaced by the floods, 22 others were injured and eight were reported missing.
The government has proposed 3.3 billion Kenya shillings ($24.5 million) for an “initial emergency response” that includes infrastructure repairs, emergency shelter and food aid.
Sixty-four public schools in Nairobi – nearly a third of the total in the capital – were “significantly affected” by the flooding, said Belio Kipsang, the top education minister.
However, Vice President Rigathi Gachagua said that “schools will reopen as planned” after the midterm holidays this month.
Kenyans have been warned to remain vigilant as more heavy rains are forecast across the country in the coming days as the monsoon hits East Africa.
The flooding was exacerbated by the El Nino weather pattern.
El Nino is a naturally occurring climate pattern that typically involves increased heat worldwide and can lead to drought in some parts of the world and heavy rainfall elsewhere.
Regional destruction
Meanwhile, floods and landslides in neighboring Tanzania have killed at least 155 people.
Tanzanian Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said on Thursday that more than 200,000 people were affected by the disaster.
He said homes, properties, crops and infrastructure including roads, bridges, railways and schools were damaged or destroyed.
In Burundi, about 96,000 people have been displaced by months of relentless rains, the United Nations and the government said this month.
The United Nations Humanitarian Agency (OCHA) said in an update this week that seasonal Gu rains are intensifying in Somalia from April to June and flash floods have been reported since April 19.
Four people were reportedly killed and more than 800 people were affected or displaced nationwide.
Uganda was also hit by severe storms that caused river banks to burst. Two fatalities were confirmed and several hundred villagers were displaced.
Late last year, more than 300 people died in torrential rains and floods in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, just as the region tried to recover from the worst drought in four decades that left millions starving.