Concern as huge cracks form in Kenya’s Rift Valley » Capital News
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 15 – Huge cracks have emerged in Kenya’s Rift Valley region, attributed to the recent heavy rains and mass flooding.
Some residents in Nakuru county lost their houses and farms after huge fissures ripped through their property.
Kiambogo, Kaptembwo, Ngata and London are some of the worst affected places in the county.
Reports indicate that last week houses that were still occupied sank in Kiambogo.
The government has sent top geologists to Nakuru to investigate further.
The county lies on one of the weak areas of the Great Rift Valley that runs from the Horn of Africa, all the way to Mozambique.
These spots along the Rift Valley have had cracks that are filled with volcanic ash.
It is the ash that it thought to have been washed away by the recent rains, leading to the cracks opening up.
Mining Principal Secretary Elijah Mwangi told Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper that residents had already been warned of this geohazard as Nakuru was located in an area susceptible to earthquakes, sinkholes and landslides.
A similar incident occurred in 2018 when the Mai-Mahiu-Narok road, near a place called Suswa at the bottom of the Rift Valley, was split by a crack following a heavy downpour.
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