School submerged, learning suspended as floods wreak havoc in city

The impact of the floods was evident at Ainsworth School in Eastleigh, where learning was suspended on Friday. /COURTESY

Heavy rains pounding several parts of the country, including Nairobi, have caused flooding in some areas, disrupting normal activities such as learning.

The impact of the floods was evident at Ainsworth School in Eastleigh, where learning was suspended on Friday after water flooded large sections of the compound, including parts of the classrooms and the administration block.

"We have suspended learning today because we cannot access the classrooms. The waters are at knee level, and therefore we cannot have students in the school," head teacher Francis Mwangi told the Star by phone.

The impact of the floods was evident at Ainsworth School in Eastleigh, where learning was suspended on Friday. /COURTESY

Images taken at the comprehensive institution, which offers both primary and junior school education, showed learners, teachers and parents who had dropped off their children stranded on an elevated section of the compound that remained above the floodwaters.

"That's hypothetical," Mwangi said when asked whether normal learning will resume Monday next week. "You see the heavens are expectant with rain so if it continues that is not guaranteed."

Flood waters in classrooms at Ainsworth School in Eastleigh, where learning was suspended on Friday. /COURTESY

He said flooding at the school is a perennial problem that also affects other institutions across the city, adding that resumption of learning remains indefinite at this point.

"This is a perennial problem, we are not surprised as a school. It's been there over the years but last year the rains were not as much, but in 2024 the situation was the same. We had to close the school several times because of similar situations."

Flood waters in classrooms at Ainsworth School in Eastleigh, where learning was suspended Friday. /COURTESY

In its daily update on Thursday evening, the Kenya Meteorological Department said scattered showers and thunderstorms would be experienced across several parts of Western Kenya, the Lake Victoria Basin, the Rift Valley and the Central Highlands, including Nairobi.

The weatherman added that the Southeastern Lowlands, as well as the Northwestern and Northeastern regions, would experience similar weather patterns during the night, Friday morning and the afternoon.

On Wednesday, acting Director of the Kenya Meteorological Department Edward Muriuki said a brief break in the ongoing rains is expected after next week as a shifting tropical rain system, known as the Madden–Julian Oscillation, moves into a phase that suppresses cloud formation and rainfall over Kenya.

“Rainfall is likely to be enhanced over much of the country during the first half of March. Dry spells are expected to occur during the second half of the month when the Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO) is predicted to be in unfavourable phases.”

Muriuki said the rains will return at the end of March, with what is considered the peak of the long rains season expected in April.