Busia County, Kenya: Maureen Akumu Okuku is from Mabinju in Bunyala southward, she narrates how life has become tough after the government stopped supporting them with food and clean water.
Maureen is camping at Bubango primary school. She confides how her husband left a year ago leaving her behind with 6 children to feed and with no home to go to and land to farm, she is left at the mercy of neighbors at the camp.
According to her, in the event that neighbors fail to come to her support, she is forced to look for wild fruits to feed her children.
She reveals she has become a bother to her neighbors who she entirely depend on for food since she has a small child she is breastfeeding. She says at the time she is tempted to engage in prostitution just to provide food for her children.
“To run away from floods, we had to come here. When coronavirus was announced in Kenya, we were already here and the government did all it could to provide us with food, clean water, and other necessities as a way of preventing the spread of Covid-19. Life was a bit better, but as cases continue reducing, the government stopped providing any help to us which has seriously affected us.” She said.
She is now calling upon the government to come to their aid and provide them with foodstuff and clean water even as the covid-19 curve continues to flatten.
“Some people have gone back to their homes but we are still here and we don’t know when we will ever go home. Reports we get is that our homes and farms are still underwater. Getting food and clean water is a problem. “I am calling upon the government to come to our rescue. All we require is food and clean water. Sometimes I think of committing suicide but again the thought of leaving behind my children keeps me going.”
Sharon Okonya a victim of floods at the camp says the major challenge they are facing today is a lack of food and clean water.
According to her the first two months they depended a lot on support from the government and other well-wishers but when corona cases started reducing, the support they used to receive stopped.
Sharon, like Maureen, is calling upon the government to come to their rescue adding that as much as Covid-19 cases are reducing in numbers, the virus is still here.
“Let the well-wisher come to our rescue. Without food and clean water, life has become unbearable. We can’t go back, our homes are still underwater and even if we go back we will still require money to reconstruct back our houses.” She sighed.
Similarly, Osborn Opondo is the chairperson at Bubango Camp says the first two months they received a lot of help and support from the government, both National and County government but for the last three months, they have received nothing from anybody, not even the government saying there is no food or water for those still in the camps.
He says as much as the covid-19 cases are reducing, they have nowhere to go and they are still looking upon the government for help.
“Both county and the national government should continue supporting us. The last three months have been difficult for us. The government is no longer supporting us as it used to do the first 2 months,” he revealed.
According to him, women in the camps whose husbands left to work in islands within Lake Victoria in Uganda and Tanzania are mostly affected, saying that when covid-19 was announced in Kenya it affected communication since they could not communicate nor travel back home to their families.
Laurence Ojiambo Bunyala resident is a worried person regarding the status of those living in camps. According to him, schools will soon be opening and these people are still camping in the same schools the learning is expected to take place.
He is blaming the leadership of the area for failing to address issues related to floods especially floods that are a result of washing away weak dykes.
“Learning is already here, we are required to vacate them to pave way for learning, but the challenge is that the only place we called home is submerged. We have no food, and no clean water,” he paused.
“Our member of parliament has let us down for failing to address perennial floods that have been affecting Bunyala year in year out caused by weak dykes along river Nzoia,” he said.
Water levels in Lake Victoria started rising late last year invading people’s homes in Bunyala Southward in Budalang’i and the entire zone around Lake Victoria, in East Africa. From a distance, you could only see a huge lake outside the lake, hard to separate the real lake and a temporary one. Almost 98 percent of Bunyala southward was completely submerged.
According to the locals are used to the floods caused by swollen River Nzoia and Yala, which occurs from time to time but with such ravaging floods from the lake, those born in the 1970s, this was a new thing to them.
The elders say the last flood of this type was last experienced in the 1960s.
More than 40,000 persons from Bunyala South, Central, and a section of Bunyala North had to relocate from their home to salvage the little they had from floods. With a lack of privacy and other essentials, their lifestyle had to change to adapt to the changing way of life.
As the news spread all over how vulnerable the people in camps were and how they were being affected by Covi-19, the government was trying all it can to stop the spread of Covid-19, both County and National governments came in to provide food, clean water, and other necessities.
As time passed, and covid-19 infections cases started reducing, the support they were receiving also reduced.
There was less support from the government. Organizations and other well-wishers stopped their frequent visits to the camps. The victims are forgotten, no more goodies. They are left on their own.
To make the matter worse, in the last two weeks River Nzoia has done it again. Busting its banks and damaging the dykes spreading its waters back to people’s residents sending the few that had gone back to their homes back to camps.
With crowding and lack of necessary equipment to curb the spread of covid-19 in these camps, the situation is risky.
