DIRAJ DIRAJ DIRAJ
  • fr
  • Stories
  • About
  • Resources
  • Grant
  • Events
  • Members
  • Join us!
press Enter to search
Feature Story

Surviving the floods of Lamu, Kenya

23/10/2024
team_david

David Owino

Kenya Correspondent

Africa News
Dan 1.1

Duncan Lukoye

Video Journalist and Editor

Zulani TV
Topic Climate Change, Disasters, Flood.
Country Kenya.
Tags Climate change, Floods, resilience.

In the Tana Delta, coastal Kenya, a single flooding event can wipe out an entire village. It has happened in the past; many times.

Mumina Barufa; mother of seven, resident of Bandi Village, one of the locations tormented by flooding at least once each year, is still living in a displaced people’s camp since October 2023. She says she has seen the worst of the floods over the years.

“Here in Bandi, the flooding is mostly sudden. So, if as a woman, you get caught up in the floods with five little children; how do you help them? You can’t! So you just close your eyes and let go of some of them,” she said, explaining that women and children are mostly left at home as men move with their livestock in search of pasture.

While the story of displacement is shared by all the villages across the delta with only a few exceptions, something was markedly different in the 2023/24 flooding episode: No life was lost, neither did the pastoral communities lose any livestock as has been the case in the past.

The County government of Lamu – the local administration – working with partners, had only months ahead of the rains, established an emergency operations centre which brings all emergency operators under one roof, improving coordination, enhancing efficiency.

Watch the story of their award-winning initiative:

Share

Related Stories

  • Mauritius
    28/02/2019

    Unprepared for climate change: Mauritius needs to go beyond treating the symptoms of environmental degradation

    Feature Story

  • 17/11/2022

    Call for communities affected by climate impacts to be compensated

    Conference Digest

  • 17/06/2020

    Malian musician and activist Inna Modja on her support for the Great Green Wall

    Interview

  • 31/05/2021

    Africa will be hard hit by Climate Change, experts warn

    Interview

DIRAJ

Supported by

DIRAJ
  • © 2025 DIRAJ
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Stories
  • About
  • Events
  • Resources
  • Members
  • Join us!