Northern Kenya

Passengers stranded again after Kona Punda section on Garissa-Nairobi Road was cut off

Passengers stranded at Madogo after Kona Punda section on Garissa-Nairobi Highway was cut off.(Photo: Issa Hussein)

By Issa Hussein | Friday, May 24, 2024

Buses and trucks that had resumed operations on Thursday, following a four-week transport crisis, were affected again by the fresh floods caused by the overflow of the river due to upstream rains.

Hundreds of passengers travelling from Nairobi are stranded at Madogo in Tana River County after fresh River Tana floods cut off the Kona Punda section of the Garissa-Nairobi highway.

The floods came just a day after the previously flooded section was repaired, temporarily resuming the paralysed Garissa-Nairobi transport.

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Speed boats resumed operations, ferrying stranded passengers from Nairobi, while others were forced to wade through knee-high waters during morning hours before the water levels rose.

Buses and trucks that had resumed operations on Thursday, following a four-week transport crisis, were affected again by the fresh floods caused by the overflow of the river due to upstream rains.

Passengers crossing on foot in the morning before the water levels rose. (Photo: Issa Hussein)

Mohamed Haji, a staff member with Golden Bus, said they transported passengers from Nairobi this morning after receiving information about the repaired Kona Punda section and the receded floods.

"We are shocked by the floods. We have no choice but to use boats to help passengers cross and arrange with our Garissa booking office to get them a bus to Wajir," he said.

More than ten buses in Garissa that resumed operations on Thursday were also affected by the floods, which destroyed the repaired Kona Punda section.

Khaltuma Aden, a passenger who booked a G Couch bus in Garissa to Nairobi on Thursday, was seen carrying her luggage and sitting at Mororo, waiting for a speed boat to ferry her to Madogo.

From there, she would travel with the company bus that had dropped passengers from Nairobi to Madogo in Tana River. "This is a big disaster. What have we done to deserve this endless crisis?" she questioned.

Speed boats resumed operations, ferrying stranded passengers from Nairobi. (Photo: Issa Hussein)

The Garissa-Nairobi Highway recorded heavy traffic on Thursday after the flooded Kona Punda section was temporarily rehabilitated, according to Abass Abdikadir, a resident of Madogo.

He said everyone was happy since Garissa, Madogo, and Mororo towns rely heavily on transport along the highway. "We are back to the crisis again. We will brace for more difficult times ahead," he said.

Garissa town, which endured a four-week shortage of food and vegetable supplies, will once again be affected by the floods that have cut off the road. The floods dashed the hopes of residents who had celebrated the resumption of transport on the highway.

The floods also once again submerged residential houses in Mororo in Tana River County and Garissa town after partially receding. Families who were camping in internally displaced persons camps in Garissa town and preparing to return to their homes will now be forced to stay longer in the camps.