Kisumu businessman cum philanthropist and politician Jonathan Opande has announced plans to institute measures aimed at ending perennial flooding caused by river Miriu in Nyando.
Opande made the pledged when he toured the areas affected by flooding and made a donation to the displaced people in Nyakach.
“Today I have toured Sango starting with Akoko beach all the way to Dumbre and Nyakwere, where I have seen people in camps, caused by the Elnino floods, but its slightly different because the water flooding Miriu emanates from the KeGen Dam” noted Opande.
Opande who spoke in Nyakweri center where he pledged to open and desilt river Miriu together with erecting dykes to help end the perennial flooding also distributed relief food and other necessities to the affected.
“The waters and the floods have washed away the crops in the farms and we are looking at starvation ahead, but we have hope that we shall have the dykes like we did in Gem and Wasare come next year, so that we can end the perennial suffering of our people.
We have also helped our people in the camps though it is not adequate, he called on other well-wishers to come in with whatever they can.
“My name is Alice Ohongo and I hail from Nyakweri in West Nyakach and we are grateful to Mr Opande for aiding us with the foodstuff and now we will be able to eat because our children have been starving since the water swept all our belongings and left us empty handed and we have been stranded because most of us depend entirely on subsistence agriculture which is now not possible due to the flooding,” said a resident.
Another resident Denita Atieno of West Koguta who also sought refuge at Nyakweri camp also extended lots of gratitude to Opande for aiding the victims with food relief including money to help them pay rent terming the help from Opande as God send.
The politician and philanthropist further pledged to assist the residents and help save them from the devastation of the flooding.
“I have witnessed the calamity we have especially at Sango and Gul, but I want to say that this is a small problem that will be conclusively sorted out once we lay the dykes, then it will be a thing of the past and the dykes will also serve as a barrier to the hippos that have been a pain in the neck in our farms and ward them off from our plantations,” assured Opande.
By Milton Onyango
