BY FELIX ASOHA
When the floods swept through Nairobi in March, Anne Wanjiku lost more than her home or belongings.
She lost her husband.
Muthee had been using his cart to help stranded residents cross between Mathare North and Kiamaiko when the floods struck.
For Sh20, he would ferry people from one side to the other. He was helping others escape the rising waters until the floods turned on him.
“He was at the bridge helping those from Mathare North move to Kiamaiko and those from Kiamaiko to Mathare North. They were paying him Sh20 each,” Wanjiku recalls.
Muthee was swept away.
His body has never been found.
At the time, Wanjiku was pregnant with their third child. Months later, she is still raising her children alone, without a job and without knowing what happened to the man she expected to come home.
“Floods came and took away my husband. To date, she has never seen him,” she says.
For Wanjiku, the prospect of another season of heavy rains brings back painful memories.
“Bringing up my child without a father hasn’t been easy for me. I don’t have any job,” she says.
She is now asking the government to act before the rains arrive and not after lives have been lost.
“We are asking the government to help us settle somewhere safe as we have been warned that El Niño is coming,” Wanjiku pleads.
She is not alone.
Twenty-one-year-old Damaris Emily, also from Mathare, remembers watching everything her family had worked for disappear in the floods.
The family was forced to start again from nothing.
“It wasn’t easy because we had to start from zero. My mother was alone and, as children, we had to depend on her. We had nothing,” she says.
Damaris says government support did not reach them, while poor housing continues to expose residents of Mathare to flooding.
“Our government did not come through for us. Mathare still suffers from poor housing,” she says.
Now, as Kenya prepares for the October to December short-rains season, residents who have already paid the highest price are demanding action before the next disaster.
Nairobi Governor John Sakaja says the county is taking proactive measures to reduce the impact of heavy rains.
He says multi-agency teams are working on widening and deepening drainage systems, cleaning and unclogging waterways and conducting civic education.
“El Niño is here in October. This time round, we are doing our best to proactively handle it as government,” Sakaja said.
He has urged residents in flood-prone areas to heed government advisories and evacuate when asked to do so, rather than waiting until the rains become dangerous.
Nairobi County has mapped 227 flood hotspots, with 16 classified as very high priority, 189 as high priority and 22 as medium priority.
Weather forecasts point to a growing likelihood of an El Niño event, which could bring above-normal rainfall between October and December, increasing the risk of flooding in vulnerable communities.
The World Food Programme has warned that the expected rains could cause severe damage to infrastructure and community livelihoods.
For families like Wanjiku’s, however, the warning is more than a weather forecast.
It is a reminder of what they have already lost.
Their plea to the State is to prepare before the waters rise.
They want authorities to clear drainage systems, improve housing and evacuation plans, identify safe areas for vulnerable families and ensure emergency response is ready before the first heavy rains.
Because for Wanjiku, another flood is not just about water entering a house.
It could mean another family waiting for a loved one who may never return.
