Flash Floods Kill at Least 45 in Kenya

By Mohamed Ahmed and Emma Bubola

Mohamed Ahmed reported from Mombasa, Kenya. Emma Bubola reported from London.

Flash floods and a landslide sent a deluge of muddy water over a Kenyan village early Monday, killing at least 45 people, as torrential rains continued to pound East Africa.

The disaster in Kenya was the deadliest in the country in the two weeks since the devastating inundations began, said Emmanuel Talam, a press secretary in President William Ruto's office.

The cause of the landslide was not immediately clear. Earlier information from a government official had cited a collapsed dam, though later reports from aid workers and local news media suggested that an obstructed tunnel had given way, allowing a torrent of muddy water to careen over the village around 3 a.m. local time.

The floods swept off people, houses and cars in the Kamuchiri area of the Rift Valley region in southern Kenya, Kithure Kindiki, cabinet secretary of the Kenyan Interior Ministry, said in a statement.

Mr. Kindiki added that bodies had been found along the path of the flash floods and the landslide, and that search and rescue operations were continuing on Monday.

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