Flash floods in Nairobi kill 23, disrupt flights at major airport

Aid ‌workers pulled bodies from floodwaters across Nairobi on Saturday after flash floods that began overnight killed at least 23 people, swept away dozens of cars and disrupted flights at East Africa’s biggest airport, authorities said.

Kenyan ​President William Ruto said he had deployed a team of emergency responders, including ​soldiers, to coordinate rescue efforts, while offering condolences to the affected communities.

“I ⁠have also ordered that relief food from our national strategic reserves be immediately released and ​distributed to families affected by the floods,” he said in a statement on social media.

In ​the industrial neighbourhood of Grogan, security guard John Lomayan, 34, looked at the body of an elderly man he recognised – a roadside egg seller – trapped beneath a car that had been washed away when the Nairobi ​River burst its banks.

“I saw him being carried by the water from up there,” ​he said, gesturing up the road. “We didn’t know where he had gone. It is only now that we ‌see ⁠him under the car”.

Bus driver John Mwai recounted how he turned his bus into a rescue vehicle to move people to higher ground.

Kenya Airways said the rains had disrupted flights to Nairobi and forced some to divert to the coastal city of Mombasa.

Scientists say global warming ​is worsening floods and ​droughts across East ⁠Africa by concentrating rainfall into shorter, more intense bursts. A 2024 World Weather Attribution study found climate change had made devastating rains in ​the region twice as likely as before.

A Reuters reporter saw three ​bodies pulled from ⁠underneath cars. Some of the dead had been electrocuted by damaged power lines. National provider Kenya Power separately said the waters had damaged equipment at a substation, listing 14 neighbourhoods that ⁠had been ​affected.

“So many cars, so much stuff, I don’t know. ​Everything was just (washed away). All of the water (came) … from that river,” shocked resident Cedric Mwanza said, referring to the ​Nairobi River.