Man buried alive in Nyeri mudslide

A middle-aged man was buried alive at Chania Estate in Nyeri Town, when his house was swept away by a mudslide following heavy downpour Thursday night.
The victim was buried while asleep at around 2 am, when a mudslide was triggered by ongoing heavy rains pounding many parts of the country leaving trails of destruction.
Rescue efforts were not possible at the time as it was raining heavily and locals had to wait till morning hours to commence unearthing the body.
This is even as the police and the county government came under sharp criticism from the locals for nonresponse despite being called severally to assist in recovery efforts.
“We ganged up using all manner of tools to recover the body that had been buried six feet underneath,” said a resident, a Mr. Maina.
The irate residents later carried the body on foot to the Nyeri Referral Hospital mortuary approximately two kilometers away yelling anti-government slogans.
“We have tried calling the police with no avail as they feigned that they had an emergency as if ours was not,” an angry Maina said.
“We even tried to contact the County fire brigade but no help was forthcoming,” continued Maina.
The body was later booked at the morgue and the residents left complaining bitterly over what they termed as laxity on both tiers of the government in responding to emergencies.
The heavy rainfall has wreaked havoc in many parts of the county with some residential houses getting submerged in flood waters while some roads have been blocked by mudslides.
The Kenol-Sagana-Marua road has been worst affected as some sections have been temporarily blocked following mudslides. The busy road links Nairobi to major commercial and agriculturally rich Mt. Kenya Region as well as to Ethiopia through Moyale border.
The road is set to be improved into a dual carriage highway under joint funding between the Kenya government and African Development Bank.
County Commissioner, Loyford Kibaara, who spoke to KNA on phone urged locals living in landslide prone areas to move to higher grounds, even as the government seeks to come up with contingency measures to avert a humanitarian crisis.
By Samuel Waititu