The first rains after many months of drought are always the worst. The people of Kenya know this, but they do not always have the means to prepare for it, and they wait in hope for water from the sky for all the good it can do for agriculture and livestock, which remain the main sources of livelihood for half the country's population.
In recent days we have witnessed the flooding of two canals that connect the main rivers in the Tana River delta, about 150 kilometres north of Malindi.
The Bura area has been totally submerged and hundreds of people have been evacuated, while many more are waiting for help to find temporary accommodation.
According to the local Red Cross, the damage to the villages is considerable and to the homeless are added the dangerous conditions caused by the arrival of crocodiles and hippos that threaten the population left in the area of the semi-submerged villages to recover their belongings and save their livestock.
In addition to the problematic situation in Nairobi after the first rainstorm, on the Mombasa Road and in the areas affected by the construction sites for the motorways and the causeway that will lead from the centre to the Jomo Kenyatta airport, an unusual and worrying situation occurred in Lamu, where the first rains were accompanied by an incredible storm that flooded all the shops and homes on the waterfront, from the port area to the Shela district.
According to the archipelago's elderly fishermen, this is a recurring phenomenon over the decades, but the younger ones do not remember a Venetian-type high water as intrusive as this one.
In the meantime, the coastal hinterland is experiencing the first beneficial downpours for the land, which is already ready to grow corn, while in the semi-arid areas of the North East, not a drop of water has yet been seen. Meteorologists expect significant rainfall to arrive tomorrow in other regions of the country, especially in the Rift Valley where the danger is the unnatural rise of the lakes.