At least 21 dead and more than 1,000 homes destroyed as landslide hits Kenya's Rift Valley

At least 21 people were killed and more than 30 others remain missing after a landslide struck Kenya’s western Rift Valley region on Saturday.

Heavy rains have battered the area for days during the country’s ongoing short rain season. More than 1,000 homes have been destroyed by mudslide in the hilly area of Chesongoch in Elgeyo Marakwet County, in western Kenya.

Several roads have been cut off and the government airlifted 30 survivors with serious injuries to a hospital in the nearby Eldoret City.

Local residents say they heard a deafening sound and scrambled to leave their homes, rushing and running out of the house in different directions.

Rescue efforts continued through Saturday despite the heavy rains persisting as disaster agencies searched through the debris of collapsed homes for missing people.

The hilly area of Chesongoch is prone to landslides that left dozens of people dead in separate incidents in 2010 and 2012. A shopping centre was washed away in 2020 by raging floods.

The country’s Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said the government is working to identify an alternative settlement area for those affected.