Taita Taveta County Commissioner, Josephine Onunga has called upon the flood victims in Taita Taveta County to maintain discipline and ensure children protection in the flood rescue centers.
This comes after a total of 420 families were displaced with floods in Voi on Monday.
The Voi families which are in Voi primary, Msambweni and Ikanga rescue camps were urged to ensure good morals to avoid Child abuse even as both the county and national governments continues to support them.
Speaking on Tuesday while distributing relief food to the affected families in Voi, Onunga commended the County government and the Kenya Red Cross for moving with speed and ensuring residents affected with floods in Voi were safely evacuated on time and provided with safer places to stay as El-nino rains continue pouring across the country. She assured the victims of their security throughout the time as they wait for the el-nino rains to stop.
According to the County Commissioner, Taita Taveta County started to experience El-nino rains and floods about 3 weeks ago and that 6 people have lost life as a result, adding that all the four Sub-counties of Taveta, Wundanyi, Mwatate and Voi have been affected.
Taita Taveta County Commissioner Josephine Onunga, Taita Taveta County Deputy Governor Christine Kilalo and other security teams toured the affected areas in Voi and admitted that indeed the areas were severely affected and assured residents that they will be given special attention for support in the form of relief food.
In Taita Taveta we started seeing the effects of this rain almost three weeks ago. We have a tremendous effect of el-nino rains. We have visited the recently affected areas in Voi Sub-county including Tanzania, kaloleni and Msambweni and the situation is not good. Some people have lost their houses as they were washed away with floods
Said Onunga
The Commissioner added that although no deaths were reported from Monday’s floods, about half of the affected people have got no houses at all adding that right from Monday, the affected families were supported with food, and beddings.
She Called upon Taita Taveta residents to avoid building and settling on riparian lands and settle safer areas to avoid recurrence of the situation in future.
On her part, Taita Taveta County Deputy Governor Christine Kilalo, while empathizing with the families, commended the county emergency response team for their swift move in ensuring safety of the residents.
She noted that as a county in conjunction with Kenya Red Cross have provided the displaced families with food and beddings and that the county will continue offering the basic support to the families until things get back to normal.
Kilalo urged the affected families to ensure that children are safe and that Incase of any health issues, they should immediately seek treatment from the County health facilities.
It’s our responsibility as county government leaders to ensure there are no citizens who will die as a result of hunger or any curable disease in our County. We will provide you with food and other basics. I know we have girls here who need sanitary towels. They are on our list and we will do what we can to ensure they stay safe
said Kilalo
Kilalo urged the residents to clean and open waterways close to their houses to pave way for water as it rains in order to avoid floods in areas where floods can be controlled.
750 bags of rice and 540 bags of beans were distributed as relief food to the affected families in Taita Taveta County.
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