Displaced and forgotten: the plight of Kisumu families
West Nyakach Chief Seth Oloo says Lake Victoria has engulfed and claimed 2800 acres of land initially occupied by locals in Sangorota, Kisumu County.
Mr Jackson Ambogo, a fisherman based at Sango Beach, Kisumu County, carefully stitches his fishing nets outside his tin-sheet house ahead of an overnight fishing expedition on Lake Victoria.
Ambogo is one of the thousands of people displaced in Nyakach sub-County after the waters of Lake Victoria invaded their homes in April this year.
The floods also swept away hundreds of their livestock and poultry besides destroying several acres of farmland under crops.
“This temporary structure is my new home. I am hoping that the water levels will finally subside and allow us to return to our ancestral land,” says Ambogo.
The fisherman explains that before the incident, his wife would plant vegetables and the earnings would be used to supplement his income from fishing.
While a handful of locals have managed to get back to their homes and build new structures, this has not been the case for Ambogo and a host of other villages in Nyakach West location.
To survive, his family now depends on the fish from the lake whose populations have also dwindled due to overfishing and environmental factors.
“My three roomed house is still inaccessible, overgrown reeds around the house have also made it insecure since we risk being attacked by hippos and snakes,” he says.
Evacuation centres
But Mr Ambogo's family is not the only one affected by the calamity, at least 1,000 other people whose homes are located along the shoreline remain stranded in evacuation centres.
Ms Mary Auma and her mother-in-law are among the locals who are still displaced and are putting up in temporary structures they erected at a neighbour’s home.
She recalls how the water levels kept rising even after the heavy rains witnessed early in the year had stopped pounding the country.
Just as the rainy season was starting, Ms Auma says she had joined other villagers in tilling their land.
The changing weather patterns had made it almost impossible for the locals to plant their crops in January as had been the case in the past.
When the rains finally came in April however, with every drop, and rising volumes of River Sondu Miriu, Lake Victoria level kept swelling.
By early June, hundreds of residents fled their homes and moved to the four schools within Nyakach West location.
“We stayed at Obange Primary School until the end of April when the schools reopened for the third term,” says Ms Auma.
When Nation.Africa visited the flooded area on Thursday morning, a better part of the once blooming lakeside village remained deserted with very little sign of life.
Only a handful of farms still had crops growing on them with the locals claiming that they were forced to abandon farming due to constant destruction by roaming hippos.
“So many families deserted their homes and farms to seek refuge on higher grounds and are yet to return," says Ms Auma.
A walk around the village revealed dilapidated permanently constructed houses with overgrown reeds and trees forming thick canopy around them.
The compounds once used by children as playgrounds have now turned into hippopotamus grazing fields.
According to the locals, the wild animals are always seen grazing in the deserted compounds till 11am.
“In the evenings, the hippos always start grazing as early as 5pm, especially during the rainy seasons,” says Ms Auma.
To access school, the children within the locality are always forced to wade through the stagnant waters exposing them to waterborne diseases.
According to a health expert at the Sango Health Centre, Malaria and typhoid remain the most common diseases treated at the facility.
The locals, during an interview revealed their fears that if left unattended, the area might just end up as a ghost village.
“There have been claims that the submerged lands are riparian lands, but we do have title deeds for the land parcels,” says Ombogo.
Nyakach West Location Chief Seth Oluoch said the recent flooding had been caused by the back flow of Lake Victoria and the increased volume of water in River Miriu.
According to Oluoch, over 2000 acres of farmlands is still submerged in the lake water leaving the locals exposed to food insecurity.
The area chief also disclosed that over 500 locals are still displaced and were forced to seek refuge in rental apartments.
“Some of the locals have integrated into homes in the neighbouring villages while there are those who are living in rental houses, “says Mr Oluoch.
The chief says the locals were initially hosted in four primary schools within the location but were eventually relocated after the institutions reopened.
The locals have since been integrated in the homes of willing villagers who settled on higher grounds.
Oluoch revealed that there are plans to put up two evacuation centers in the location to host the displaced locals.
“Previously, we would receive food and nonfood items from humanitarian organisations, currently, the supplies have been delayed while the villagers remain helpless,” he said.
Mr Oluoch says in the past two weeks; they have recorded two cases of Hippo attacks among two teenagers while fetching water in the lake.
