Nairobi — Bodies of two flood victims were recovered over the weekend as another person died of cholera. This triggered fears of a major outbreak of diseases following the unrelenting El Nino rains in the Coast region.

Traders in districts that were cut off by the rains are also increasing food prices to add more misery on the residents, who have been displaced by the rains that started pouring last week.

In Magarini district, the body of Mr Juma Ndaba, who drowned as he swam in the swollen river next to a broken bridge at Kanagoni on the Mombasa-Lamu road last Wednesday was found in a thicket just metres away. The second body of an unidentified person was found in Chamari in Marafa area.

However, it could not be removed because police vehicles could not pass through the cut-off Marafa-Bungale road, said DC Richard Karani and Malindi Police Commander Peter Kattam. The body of a baby who drowned in the same area has not been found. Two pupils who spent the night in a tree at Chamari area were rescued on Sunday, said the DC.

Cabinet ministers Naomi Shabaan, Amason Kingi and PS Ali Dawoud Mohamed visited 454 displaced families sheltering at Kanagoni Dispensary. Kanagoni bridge was destroyed and sections of the Mombasa-Lamu highway washed away last week, cutting off Lamu, Tana River and Garissa districts. More than 200,000 people were displaced as rains poured non-stop for three days.

"We have very few tents. We have no drugs, no water and toilets. We don't have food or clothing and we ask the government and NGOs to help us," their spokesman at Kanagoni, Mr Nelson Katana, told the ministers. So far, only the Red Cross, the county council and CDF have responded to their plight, he added.

Dr Shabaan sent a truck of rice and another one with kitchenware from the government. Politician Franco Esposito also donated milk, sugar and maize flour. "We had prepared ourselves for the lower Tana Delta, which usually floods, but not Kanagoni which has caught us by surprise," said Dr Shabaan.

Doctors will be sent to the camp to monitor the situation and prevent any disease outbreak, she said. Mombasa municipal council moved to unblock clogged gutters and drainage to avert a possible outbreak of malaria .In the Tana Delta, prices of foodstuff has shot up due to the transport crisis on the Garsen-Malindi road and other commercial roads in the district.

Reports by Daniel Nyassy, Mazera Ndurya, Galgalo Bocha and KNA