Thika MP donates foodstuff, beddings to Kisiiki flood victims.

Thika MP Eng. Patrick Wainaina joined by jovial residents of Kisiiki village after he donated foodstuff and bedding to victims of raging floods on Friday.

Thika MP Eng. Patrick Wainaina on Friday donated foodstuffs, beddings and other supplies to about 60 families in Kisiiki village, Kilimambogo who have been displaced by surging floodwaters as a result of torrential rains upstream.

Addressing the victims after leading a rescue mission in conjunction with the Thika Red Cross Branch, the legislator said that though the donation would not solve the problem entirely, it would serve as a relief to people who had lost almost everything to the floods.

“We have commenced disaster assessments and evaluations of the resulting damage and dislocation to determine the extent of response to be provided. I assure that we will do all we can to assist you restore your lives and to a find lasting solution in dealing with this kind of disasters that have become an annual problem here,” said Wainaina.

The Red Cross put the number of those affected by the raging floods to 152.

The MP added that though his office was working towards ameliorating their sufferings, it would very wrong if the victims went back to the same structures on waterways noting that their safety was paramount.

“We will provide you with some iron sheets to rebuild your homes on safer grounds where we will agree with the administration here. But will not allow anyone to use them to erect structures in the waterways,” he said.

Having listened to their grievances which included being shortchanged on resettlement by the local administration and leaders from the previous regimes, the MP explained that it was imperative that stakeholders introspect on the aftermath and find the way forward. 

Wainaina added that if his office would revisit the issue of how the land given to them by President Uhuru Kenyatta last year was distributed and in case any undeserving cases were discovered, he would advocate the cancellation of such award and revert back the land to the genuine beneficiaries.

He set up a committee of 12 people, 10 drawn from the affected families, to embark on the process of relocating them to safer ground as had been directed by the president when he ordered the resettlement of squatters from Kilimambogo area.

Some of the victims who spoke, blamed their situation on local administration and the committees constituted by the previous leadership of shortchanging them and allocating themselves and their cronies most of the land, leaving most families without none or with very small plots of land.

“Most of the people that were paraded as beneficiaries at the Thika Stadium during the president’s visit were later shortchanged with some even losing their land completely. Those who got some were allocated land along the river banks and are now victims of floods,” said one resident who claims that out of their family of 5 grown men, only their elderly mother was allocated a plot of less than 40X80 feet.

She claimed that even though the president presented title deeds for 1,700 beneficiaries, the issue was later doctored to accommodate nonresidents to a tune of about 5,000 title deeds, most of which were illegally procured.

“Those living near the DCC’s compound at Makutano have now been given a 7-day ultimatum by the administration and village elders to vacate or else they be evicted forcefully. This was not part of the original arrangement which stated that people be allocated titles to the part of land they are currently located. This is a scam to evict people to accommodate foreigners in plots deemed to be prime, she added.

The residents said their pleas to get assistance from the Lands Commission has been frustrated by the same people entrusted to be their guardians. They therefore appealed to the area MP and the president to intervene and save them from more anguish.