Landslides in Uganda and Kenya kill over 40 people

More than 40 people are now known to have died after multiple landslides hit the mountainous border region of Kenya and Uganda last week.

“I lost a grandmother, a maternal aunt, an uncle, two sisters, a family friend and a cousin. They lived together in the village of Kaptul,” Felix Kemboi told the BBC from the Kenyan side.

Felix, 30, was so upset that he found it difficult to put the experience into words.

On both sides of the border, many people are still missing and search and rescue teams have been dispatched to find them, amid warnings that more landslides could occur.

“As heavy rainfall continues to be experienced in several parts of the country, the risk of landslides, especially along the Kerio Valley region, is on the rise,” warned Kenyan Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen.

He urged residents in the affected areas to be cautious of any earth movements and said local authorities were moving at-risk people to higher ground.

Fourteen schoolchildren were among dozens of Kenyans killed when two mudslides hit the Great Rift Valley region, according to the country’s education ministry.

Survivors in eastern Uganda shared harrowing accounts with the BBC.

“We were sleeping at night, (we heard) a huge noise. The neighbors came running. ‘You’re waking up.’ The mountain is coming. My niece and my brother died,” recalls Helda Narunga Maasai.

Her home in Quinn Village was destroyed by the mudslide and she is now staying with a neighbor.

About 14 km (eight miles) up the road, in Kapchorva, three children and a woman from a household were killed.

Uganda Red Cross officials say at least 18 people have died in the eastern part of the country, and their staff plus community volunteers are searching for the 20 people still missing in Kapchorwa, Bukwo and Quin districts.

Mande David Kapcheronge, a local leader, told the BBC that rescue teams were using rudimentary tools to dig out piles of mud in the recovery effort.

Experts have warned against building homes in some of the affected areas in Uganda and Kenya, where landslides are a known problem.

In 2010, a landslide in the town of Bududa in Uganda killed around 300 people, making it one of the country’s most devastating natural disasters.

In response to this latest disaster, the Ugandan government is paying 5 million shillings ($1,300; £1,000) to bereaved families and 1 million shillings to each survivor.

The Kenyan government has yet to announce compensation for survivors or bereaved.

In Uganda, search missions have been hampered by mudslides that cut off access to some roads.

Additional reporting by Natasha Buti