Death Toll In Chesogon Mudslide Rises To 15 As 22 People Still Missing

The death toll in Chesogon, Elgeyo Marakwet county has risen to fifteen (15) even as 22 more people are yet to be recovered according to the Rift Valley Regional Commissioner George Natembeya.

Two bodies were recovered today, Wednesday the 22nd and another one body of a foetus during a search operation raising the number of bodies recovered to fifteen.

“We found the foetus but we are yet to find the mother who had only one week left to give birth,” weirdly, Natembeya said.

The Kenya Red Cross and the Kenya Defence Forces continue to conduct the search for the remaining 22 people believed to have been buried alive in the Chesogon mudslide in West Pokot.

The search is currently expected to continue until tomorrow, Thursday the 22nd of April 2020, when the search team is expected to make a final determination on whether to continue with the operation or not.

Heavy rainfall that continues in West Pokot and across the country has made the process of recovering bodies in Chesogon difficult with those carrying out the process citing that the high water levels and stony terrain are not making the process any easier.

“The body we retrieved yesterday was found 20 kilometres away from where the mudslide occurred,” Natembeya said concluding that most of the bodies might have been swept far from from the place the mudslide actually occurred.

All the Chesogon households affected are expected to start receiving food, a process that will take place from house to house as the commissioner says the process will continue until further communication is made.

West Pokot is known to have casualties whenever heavy rains hit some of the lowland areas with another tragedy has taken place last year leading to the death of more than 50 people.

West Pokot residents are now being urged by Governor Lonyangapuo to move to higher grounds to avoid a repetition of the mudslide tragedy.

“Those are your homes but we need you to be flexible and those living on the escarpment to move,” Governor Lonyangapuo told the West Pokot residents following the Chesegon mudslide.

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