Nairobi, Jan 30 – About 10 lodges in Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve, a popular tourist destination, have been hit by flooding following heavy rainfall in the area, local newspapers reported.
Some foreign tourists were reportedly marooned in their inundated lodges unable to move out because unpaved roads have become impassable.
The Daily Nation named some of the affected lodges as Mara Leisure, Base, Mara Acacia, Azure, Oleshaiki, River Side, Crocodile, Mara Ngenje and Mara Eden.
“I woke up and found the sleeping area flooded. In the process of fleeing, I lost my shoes, one of my phones and other personal belongings,” said Paul Letiwa, a Daily Nation reporter caught up in the floods, was quoted as saying. “There was no rescue hours later. Scores of tourists are yet to be rescued but we have been taken to Talek Trading Centre, some five kilometres away.”
Many parts of Kenyan have been receiving heavy rainfall since October. Rivers that flow through Maasai Mara are reported to have broken their banks inundating large swathes of the vast National Reserve.
At least one local resident is reported to have drowned while attempting to cross the swollen Talek River.
