Nairobi County has been experiencing heavy rains this week with rainfall intensifying on Thursday night.
The State of A Nation: Journalist Brenda Wambui recounts almost drowning in Nairobi West Floods.
No one came. We were truly on our own...then the thieves struck~ Brenda Wambui.
Brenda-Wambui
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And when it rains, it pours.
Nairobi Dam burst its banks leaving many stranded in Nairobi West, South C, parts of Langata Road and Mbagathi Way, Dam Estate, Civil Servants Estate, Five Star Estate and Parts of Lower Hill.
The following is a recount of events as told by Kenyan journalist, Brenda Wambui.
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THREAD:
Kenya's systemic failure nearly killed me and 18 other people yesterday.I was driving home at 9.15 to beat the curfew, and couldn't use my preferred routes home because of the expressway construction. It was raining heavily, but I was ok until I got to Nairobi West.
I never really used to understand what flash flooding is, until yesterday. Suddenly, what was a manageable amount of water to drive through knocked out my car, and it started to be carried away by the water. Water started seeping into my car, so I switched off my engine.
I engaged my handbrake, and called my mother crying. She told me to leave the car immediately, so I did. By this time, my tires were halfway covered with water, and when I got out, the water was reaching my knees.I walked out to what I thought was a safe patch of grass.
Some two other men had parked their cars ahead of mine, at the gate of the housing estate across the Muslim Girls high school. Their cars were above water, mine was not.Another man managed to get his Mazda Demio onto the patch of grass we were standing on.
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There was a man stuck smack in the middle of the road with his wife and three kids. There was a man walking home, who kindly shared his umbrella with some of us. There were yet two other men whose cars were swept away into the huge ditch.
There were two very young men who own shops at the stalls there, who had to watch their stock get submerged in water and some of it wash away.There were many more I didn't talk to. We all had the horror of watching the cars on the road get more and more submerged by water.
It was raining heavily, and we all were drenched. We mobilised like I have never seen. We called the Red Cross, the 999 helpline, the police. We kept being told that people were coming. No one came. The whole time. We were truly on our own.
Brenda Wambui’s is a horrific story, one of many who were caught up in Nairobi floods.
With rains expected to continue, and much being already said about drainage systems in Kenya, do we continue to watch and wait?
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