Ngaremara, Kisima flood victims recount ordeal after overcoming adversity

Pauline Maiya, 37, was living in a mud-walled house with her nine children when last November El-Nino rains occasioned floods that flattened the house within the Ngaremara trading centre. She had been chased away from her home in Akadeli following her husband's death.

While she knew the risk she was exposing herself and the children to for living in a low-lying area, at a time when heavy rains were pounding the region, she was forced to stay because she had nowhere else to seek asylum.

"The children had slept on the floor when the raging waters got into the house. It was around midnight. I hurriedly strapped the youngest on my back and rushed out with the rest. The water levels were knee high," she recalls the November 23 incident.

The heavy downpour on that night left a trail of destruction in the area, displacing hundreds of families within Attan, Tractor, Aukot, Lowangila and Ngaremara centres, among other areas while also causing the deaths of two people who were swept away while crossing the swollen stream.

Paulina spent the night in the cold with her children, and the following morning, alongside hundreds of displaced persons, they were taken to Ngaremara Boys Secondary, where they camped for a whole month and were provided with food by the county government.

"All our household items—10 chickens and three goats—that offered us milk were swept away by the floods. I could not believe it when we passed by the area where the house was, the following day," she recounts.

And when the water levels subsided and the Internally Displaced families started leaving for their homes, Paulina had nowhere to go but a neighbour temporarily hosted her for two months.

"I relied on casual jobs such as washing people's clothes as well as charcoal burning to fend for my family," she notes.

The predicament made her develop a fear for raging waters until Compassion International Kenya, through the Methodist Church of Kenya, built her and several others houses, offering them a new lease of life.

"Magdalene Nang'eje offered me land (within the Zebra area) where the timber house has been built after she learnt of my plight. My children now sleep comfortably and are safe from floods," elated Paulina says as she sweeps her compound.

Paulina Maiya outside her house at Zebra in Ngaremara ward that Compassion International Kenya built following her El-Nino rains plight. (Photo: Waweru Wairimu)

In the wake of the ongoing rains, Paulina appeals to residents in flood-prone areas in the county to relocate to higher grounds to prevent loss of lives and destruction of properties.

Fred Maingi, an official at the MCK children's department, said the support offered by a group of churches based in the Netherlands sought to help the families have decent lives.

"The houses that are partitioned also offer parents privacy as the children have a separate room to sleep and study in," Maingi said, adding that in most cases and due to poverty, parents sleep in the same room with the children.

Floods aftermath 

Several kilometres away at Kisima in the neighbouring Wabera ward and within the Isiolo-Meru border, we meet Rose Ngimat, who slept on a cold floor for one month with her three children after an iron-sheet house they were sleeping in became waterlogged during last year's rains.

"I used to spend the entire night awake while draining off the waters with the children sleeping on a waterlogged mattress (because we had no bed) which made them often fall sick," she recalls.

Like Paulina, her plight was occasioned by the death of her husband, which forced her to leave the home following alleged hostility by some relatives.

"I and the children would have been in a very bad situation had the house not been built for us. I now have some peace because that is one challenge sorted," she says, terming the help timely considering that she had pressing needs to sort, including paying fees for her children and assisting her younger siblings.

"My first-born daughter, who is in Form One (at Kisima Secondary), was assisted by her former primary school to join the secondary school after she was unable to access a scholarship despite scoring 324 marks in KCPE".

After unsuccessful previous attempts in the fruit and egg hawking business, Ngimat opted for manual work at local construction sites.

From Sh6,000 savings with the Village Loaning and Saving Association (VSLA) group, she managed to purchase a few building tools that she sells at construction sites.

"I go (to the sites) while pushing a wheelbarrow with the building tools. I ask those in charge to offer me a job or purchase the tools from me. That way, I can fend my family amid challenges," she says.

She hopes to set up a grocery shop in the village to enable her to take care of the family and support her children's education. "Though I did not complete my education, I am passionate about supporting my children to attain the highest level and bring me out of poverty".

Project Manager Catherine Karimi revealed that the house cost Sh150,000 and the money was part of Sh530,000 in support for the construction of three houses in Kisima and KK and provision of bedding to other affected families.

"The selection process was thorough, and the most vulnerable cases were considered," Karimi said, adding that the number of beneficiaries was limited to the available resources.