Garissa County has asked residents living near River Tana to start preparing for floods.
National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) coordinator Abdinoor Dubow said on Tuesday that the announcement was based on a warning by the Meteorological Department.
PREPARATIONS
The department said that several parts of the country, among then the North Eastern region, will receive heavy rainfall.
Speaking in Garissa town yesterday, Mr Dubow said residents must start preparing early.
Thousands of people, including irrigation farmers from Garissa and Tana River counties, live along the river that divides the two counties. They suffered huge losses during the March-May floods.
The coordinator said aid agencies as well as the national and county governments have faced several challenges in mitigating floods in the past.
“We will soon have a meeting of stakeholders to interrogate ourselves and see the lesson to learn from previous cases of flooding,” he said.
“[We need to know] what went wrong and how we can improve in coordination, information sharing and dissemination.”
EXAMS
Regarding the national primary and secondary school examinations, Mr Dubow noted the need to properly store examination materials and ensure they reach schools.
He said the health department will consider storing drugs and vaccines, as well as other measures, in case of disease outbreaks.
Nyanza, Western, Central, Eastern, North Rift, North Eastern and Coastal regions will be affected. It will also rain heavily in Nairobi and Machakos counties.