No fewer than 50 people have lost their lives in Kenya in a deluge following heavy rains and flooding, a Red Cross official has claimed.
According to reports, people living in villages near Mai Mahiu, about 60km (37 miles) from the capital, Nairobi, were swept away as they slept.
Africa Today News, New York reports that in the past month, floods that devastated regions of Kenya have claimed the lives of over 100 people.
Mai Mahiu is divided by a broad, brown scar made of mud, uprooted trees, and crushed buildings.
A roaring sound woke people up in the early hours of Monday as a tide of water crashed down from upriver.
Residents spoke of a night of frantic efforts to pull people out of the raging flood and dig them out of the mud.
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Deden Muiri, 60, said he heard the roar and saw lightening flash. But before he had time to think he was up to his neck in water.
He saw the flood take his wife and was swept in the opposite direction.
Convinced he was going to die, Mr Muiri said a quiet goodbye to his family.
Miraculously though, he was able to grab a tree branch and clung to life by hanging on.
One of his daughters knows how to swim, he said, and was able to rescue two of his grandchildren.
When we arrived many people were out surveying the damage, walking along the gauged out riverbank, poking through the debris, trying to come to grips with the catastrophe.
Peter Munyinge’s house survived but the rest of his neighbourhood did not.
“There are little babies in the water, older people…people are screaming, people are crying, losing their lives and their loved ones,” he said.
The Kenya Red Cross has joined search and rescue operations, with its emergency response manager, Anthony Muchiri, telling the reporters that the death toll has risen to 50.
“This is the worst I’ve ever come across in my career,” he said, adding that not only were people’s homes swept away, but also their foundations.
Of the bodies recovered so far, 17 were of children, police commander Stephen Kirui said, cited by Reuters news agency.