Heavy Flooding Across Kenya Kills at Least 86

At least 86 people have been killed across Kenya by the most destructive flooding in the country’s recent history, police said Saturday.

The country is reeling under the double onslaught of unseasonal downpours and epidemics that are exacting a high toll in human life and livestock as well as hammering the economy, which is based on tourism and agriculture.

“The death toll now stands at 86 people dead; with Coast [province] reporting 38, Nairobi eight, and other provinces 40,” police said in a statement issued in the capital, Nairobi.

Heavy rains continued in the eastern Nguluni and Mwala areas Saturday morning and washed away at least a dozen houses, according to local reporters marooned in the areas.

Kenya’s Meteorological Department said rainfall would decrease in flood-hit areas over the next few days, partly as a result of a tropical cyclone in the Mozambique channel off the country’s east coast.

Weather officials have blamed East Africa’s heavy rains on the El Nino phenomenon, and police said the damage appeared to be the worst in Kenya’s recent history.

In one incident, at least 13 people were stranded on an island in eastern Kenya after their camp was swept away by raging floods. One man swam to safety, but police feared most of the others had died.