East Africa Endures Heavy Rains, Severe Floods

Let’s turn to East Africa which is bracing for more floods. Hundreds of lies have been lost across the region in torrential rain that began in March following years of drought. Kenya president has postponed the reopening of schools as flood related deaths passed 200. Let’s get the latest from Jennifer Zavaza or Africa Correspondent Johannesburg and is going to be my friends on this show now that we’ve officially launched Bloomberg Horizons Middle East and Africa. Wonderful to have you with me, but you know for now let’s just start with what is happening in East Africa. What is the situation across the region right now? Yeah. Jimana, great to be on the show with you. Thanks so much for having me. Listen, the situation is getting very dire. As you mentioned. Of course, these rains have just been pouring on and on, even more so than East Africa typically anticipates around this time. So the death toll has surpassed at least 400 people, Hundreds of thousands have been displaced. And as you mentioned, we heard Kenyan president deciding to postpone the opening of schools. But he’s also receiving a bit of criticism, I guess not just him, but the government in general. For the lack of preparation here and also poor infrastructure that has not been able to withstand such a dramatic event. And as I mentioned, this is typically rainy season for East Africa. But the El Nino weather events is, is what’s making this weather phenomenon what many people are calling more severe than we’ve ever seen. So it’s in Kenya, it’s also in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Burundi that is all really suffering these dramatic effects. And the concern really Jumana is what happens next, of course. As we mentioned, rainy season typically good for harvests and we had seen this be a pretty good harvest season. But now with these torrential downpours, the question is how is this going to affect movement of people, of food, of fuel, of of everything at the livelihood that that people are really focused on here? And could this potentially create even more dramatic food inflation for this region in addition to the humanitarian situation there?