\n<\/p>\n
Aid \u200cworkers pulled bodies from floodwaters across Nairobi on Saturday after flash floods that began overnight killed at least 23 people, swept away dozens of cars and disrupted flights at East Africa\u2019s biggest airport, authorities said.<\/strong><\/p>\n Kenyan \u200bPresident William Ruto said he had deployed a team of emergency responders, including \u200bsoldiers, to coordinate rescue efforts, while offering condolences to the affected communities.<\/p>\n \u201cI \u2060have also ordered that relief food from our national strategic reserves be immediately released and \u200bdistributed to families affected by the floods,\u201d he said in a statement on social media.<\/p>\n In \u200bthe industrial neighbourhood of Grogan, security guard John Lomayan, 34, looked at the body of an elderly man he recognised \u2013 a roadside egg seller \u2013 trapped beneath a car that had been washed away when the Nairobi \u200bRiver burst its banks.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw him being carried by the water from up there,\u201d \u200bhe said, gesturing up the road. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know where he had gone. It is only now that we \u200csee \u2060him under the car\u201d.<\/p>\n Bus driver John Mwai recounted how he turned his bus into a rescue vehicle to move people to higher ground.<\/p>\n Kenya Airways said the rains had disrupted flights to Nairobi and forced some to divert to the coastal city of Mombasa.<\/p>\n Scientists say global warming \u200bis worsening floods and \u200bdroughts across East \u2060Africa by concentrating rainfall into shorter, more intense bursts. A 2024 World Weather Attribution study found climate change had made devastating rains in \u200bthe region twice as likely as before.<\/p>\n A Reuters reporter saw three \u200bbodies pulled from \u2060underneath cars. Some of the dead had been electrocuted by damaged power lines. National provider Kenya Power separately said the waters had damaged equipment at a substation, listing 14 neighbourhoods that \u2060had been \u200baffected.<\/p>\n \u201cSo many cars, so much stuff, I don\u2019t know. \u200bEverything was just (washed away). All of the water (came) \u2026 from that river,\u201d shocked resident Cedric Mwanza said, referring to the \u200bNairobi River.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n