A dam in Kenya near the capital of Kenya Nairobi burst open leading to a lot of damage.This happened after a lot of rain collected in the dam and because of that the dam broke and the water swept through Mai Mahiu a town 53 kilometers away from Nairobi.
The main culprit behind the burst of the dam is the rain which has been pouring for weeks. According to weather analyst, the rain will keep coming and doesn’t seem to end anytime soon.Kenya usually experiences long rains from March till May and this year a meteorological event known as El nino has been a huge factor.
The floods in eastern Africa have not only affected Kenya but other countries like Tanzania where over 100 Thousand people have been displaced and are living in schools. In the village of Mai Mahiu, 50 people have been pronounced dead and more are said to appear as they continue to look for people taken by the floods.After the dam broke the prime minister of Kenya issued an order for immediate inspection of all dams so that no other dams break.The Kenya National Highways Authority issued a warning against using the highway and roads that were west of Nairobi because of the amount of debris caused by the flood.
I asked fellow junior at Palisade high school Liam Warren about his thoughts on the Dam and the strong rains in Kenya and he said “I think it’s really scary what’s happening over there” “I don’t think anything like that has ever happened or could happen here on the mesa”.
Since casualties are still rising we don’t know for sure how many are dead or injured but we can hope that the deaths slowly dwindle and that we can find more people.
