Two months after the El Niño floods, survivors in Tana River County continue to live in misery. Most people have been displaced and lived in camps, becoming homeless and struggling to find food and shelter.
Those camping inside the school have been asked to leave but are not allowed to return home as the county government warns that those who risk their lives in such areas will no longer be helped. Not yet.
So they roam the streets in search of food, knock on doors begging for manual labor, and beg for a place to sleep when the sun goes down.
“I live a shameful life. It's like I didn't have a home, but the empty shell of my home stares at me every day. All my supplies are gone. I hope for better days,” Khadijah said.・Mavna said.
During the day, Mavna wanders the town looking for manual labor to support her three children. She and her husband, Asman Komola, have made it their daily routine to look for work for her. While she heads west with her sunrise, her husband heads east to find her a job that pays enough to buy her a griddle.
In the evening, they gathered in a broken-down house built only on its skeleton and told each other about their day before going their separate ways in search of a place to sleep.
“It wasn't the life we were looking forward to. Before the floods, we were living a normal life. The kids were in school and I had to worry about them. All we had was their food and school supplies,” she said.
Her husband is a broken man, his face betraying despair. Every day he spends with children who live like animals eats away at his life, but he must rebuild their lives.
“I have to build them a new home. It requires money, so I have to work harder. I don't want to see or hear them crying at night, so at the end of the day is living separately from them,” Komola said.
He has now built a polythene hut on his farm near the Tana River, where he works as a gardener and is looking forward to living there with his family.
The hut is a temporary solution to his homelessness as he continues to search for building materials to rebuild his house and provide a home for his family.
“It's better than nothing here. It's better than hopping from balcony to balcony until we can rebuild our house. I hope that happens soon,” Komola said.
Widow Esha Kokani had been begging from house to house, and her mat was the only thing left after the floods.
Asthmatic and living on the brink of death without an inhaler, she is learning how to cope in a harrowing storm.
All that remains of her home is the edge of the foundation.
“This space you see here, this was my home. These logs that you see standing are the only evidence that a structure existed here. Everything else is just water. ,” she said.
Kokani has been squatting in the house next door since the government asked him to leave the IDP camp. Since then, her life has become an unfortunate gamble in the hope that someday help will come.
“I have no place to live. I am a nuisance to my neighbors and a burden to my relatives. They see me as a nuisance every day, so I decided to turn to God. I did,” she said.
Her children are scattered all over the place, the adults stay with friends, and the grandchildren stay with relatives.
Hundreds of survivors are in much the same situation, with the government banning them from returning to the disaster site but offering no way to escape.
Human rights activist James Rashid said the government was insensitive to the plight of survivors.
“They kicked them out of the area where they were camping and did not give them another place. At the same time they warned them not to return to their homes and did not provide them with alternative land. This is a human rights violation,” he said. said.
Rashid noted that the situation is worsening day by day and reiterated the need for urgent intervention. He appealed to his supporters to help survivors rebuild before the April rains arrive.
“These people need shingles, bedding, cement and crockery. The government has failed to do that, but I believe there is humanity in that. As for land to settle these people. , we are going to force the county government to provide it,” he said. He said.
More than 20,000 people are still living in camps that have not yet been closed in parts of Tana River County.
The survivors are waiting for the county and national government to provide them with an alternative place to settle.
Tana River Governor Dadoh Godana said areas where some people would be resettled in camps had been identified and the Disaster Risk Management Committee would soon provide instructions to survivors.
Meanwhile, they are appealing for support to build basic infrastructure in the affected areas, such as education centres, toilets and water reservoirs.
“It takes a lot of money to resettle these people, because if they have to stay there, they will need social accommodations.” [will cost] That’s about 2 billion lice,” he said.
