Heavy downpour experienced in Wajir, Marsbit, and Mandera counties has wreaked havoc, rendering some roads impassable due to sticky mud and flash floods.
On Thursday, March 23, impassable roads left drivers and passengers, including an ambulance ferrying a patient in critical condition trapped for hours along Takaba-Moyale road.
The waters from the Ethiopian highlands found their way into the rifts on the lower Kenyan side.
The waters blocked roads, displaced families and killed livestock.
Speaking to the press, Ali Abdhirahaman, an anesthetics and critical patient doctor who was in the ambulance, said the situation was dire, and they were kept waiting for hours.
According to him, the distance of a stretch of 155km, which on a normal day is said to take roughly four to five hours, had to be covered in two days.
Ali said they had encountered a drift at Adajolle in Bute, Wajir county at around 12:30 pm on Thursday while on transit to the hospital and had to make a stopover for two hours to wait for the running water to reduce.
"As a medic, this is quite stressful, especially if you have a patient who needs prompt attention," Ali said.
Patient on oxygen
According to him, the situation was dire and inhumane, and they had already used three oxygen cylinders to keep the patient alive as they were enroute to Nairobi for treatment.
He disclosed they had to cry for help, and an ambulance from Nairobi was dispatched to help, but due to the situation, it also stuck at Othaa in Moyale, and neither of them could reach the other due to the impassable roads.
According to the residents, the rain was the heaviest they had ever experienced in the area.
Its effect was catastrophic as it had cut the bridge separating two villages where some residents were dying of hunger, and the officers in charge of food donation could not navigate to reach them.
"It's a sorry situation for the residents and the commuters here and its about time the government takes this situation seriously," Ali said.
