Mumbua Mutuva, 54, reserves a deep sigh for people who ask him about the 1997 El Niño rains. He recalls the year with a mixture of nostalgia and frustrations.
At the time, Mumbua, then 28 years old, worked as a driver delivering newspapers to different parts of the country. The day the heavy rains started, he was heading to Mombasa- a route that would become synonymous with treacherous challenges as the El Niño rains pounded the land.
“The month of October that year started like any other, but as days went by, whispers of an impending El Niño filled the air. For weeks, the Meteorological Department warned about the rains but as a seasoned driver, I wasn’t worried. After all, I had faced chaotic traffic jams and road mayhem many times before. At first, I even chuckled at the way pedestrians scurried for cover but soon, the laughter gave way to a sinking feeling in my stomach as I realised the magnitude of the situation,” he says.
Trouble began when Nairobi’s drainage system, ill-equipped to handle such a deluge, began to falter. Roads became flooded and leaving Nairobi for Mombasa was a big challenge: “ The roads had turned into murky flood waters. We had to take alternative routes.”
One of the strategies that Wambua and his colleagues used was navigating through the rural shambas. “We banded together and sometimes, the detours that we had taken would lead us to someone’s farm. At some point, we had to use pangas to cut down the bushes so we could make progress,” he reflects.
What they had in their Isuzu, he explains, was a treasured product bound by time.
“We had to ensure that the newspapers got to the various coastal destinations by 6 a.m. every day. From Mombasa, our drive back to Nairobi was just as treacherous. The rains went on for about three months and driving was a nightmare,” he says.
For Mumbua, it’s not just a trip down memory lane but a stark reality of the bad past repeating itself. “I am now retired but I am much worried for the road users especially drivers. In as much as there’s an improved road infrastructure, our drainage system especially in the city is still a sorry state,” he says.
News of the impending El Niño rains is now a matter of concern.
Francis Muhoro, a resident at Suswa, is anxious: “I have lived in Karima for more than three decades and whenever it rains, this road becomes impassable.”
Another Mai-Mahiu- Narok highway user, John Waweru-a boda boda operator is concerned that the road will soon become impassable.
“The April rains cut off the roads and that was not even El Niño. Whenever it rains heavily, we are used to the roads being impassable,” he says.
Hannah Kimani, assistant director in charge of sub-seasonal to seasonal forecasting at the Kenya Meteorological Department, says that forecast models show that we are likely to see moderate to strong El Niño rains.
“We may not experience exactly what we experienced in 1997 as no year behaves like the other. While this was the worst ever because of the deaths and damages associated with it, Kenya also experienced El Niño-driven rains in 2006 and 2015 but were not as intense."
A 2007 report commissioned by the University Corporation for atmospheric Research shows that the rains destroyed many bridges and an estimated 100,000 km of roads, leading to a general paralysis of the transport system in parts of the country.
A World Bank emergency recovery project indicates that in August 1998, the bank loaned Kenya Sh5.9 bn ($40) million for the repair of rural roads damaged by the rains. The lack of contingency and mitigation plans is a costly affair for the taxpayers.
An urban planner and researcher, Constant Cap, argues that the preparedness of Kenya’s urban towns to cope with heavy rains is worrying.
“Regrettably, we often exhibit a reactive rather than proactive approach when faced with the impacts of severe weather,” he muses.
Abdulrashid Mohamed, Director of Road assets and corridor management at the Kenya Urban Road Authority (Kura), says: "With lessons from the 1997 El Nino event, the authority has engaged road inspectors on the ground to provide real-time updates on the status of various road sections during the rainy period.
Kenya National Highway Authority (Kenha) deputy director of corporate Communication Samwel Kumba says the agency has commenced construction of drainage systems in the sections of the road that have historically grappled with persistent flooding problems.
