Heavy rains have turned Usonga Ward in Alego-Usonga Constituency into a scene of despair, displacing residents and prompting urgent calls for intervention from national and county crisis management teams. With floodwaters rising rapidly, locals warn of an impending humanitarian crisis reminiscent of past El Niño disasters.
Uhembo and Udamayi Primary Schools stand underwater, forcing pupils to wade through murky, contaminated pools daily. The filthy conditions expose children to waterborne diseases and the constant threat of drowning, turning what should be safe learning spaces into hazardous zones.
Human rights activist Ochieng, a Usonga native now based in Nairobi, voiced sharp criticism of the response. “During the last heavy rains in this region we saw the county government send a high-powered contingent comprising of a Chief Officer in Administration and IT heading a committee of crisis management experts, but right now they are too busy campaigning, all that brings them down here is politicking,” he said. “When I said the highly-funded crisis management committee was a hoax I was attacked by the local administration. Today the home of one long-serving Assistant Chief is under water – and I believe he now knows why the civic bodies and whistleblowers are important.”
Vegetable farmers in the Mahur area are staring at losses running into hundreds of thousands of shillings. The once-thriving Migingo food basket lies flooded and unfarmable, threatening wider food shortages across Alego-Usonga and raising fears of famine. Kenya Meteorological Department forecasts for the March-May 2026 long rains period warn of above-normal rainfall in parts of Alego, with occasional heavy downpours and heightened flood risk in low-lying zones – patterns echoing the devastating 2020 El Niño events that displaced hundreds and triggered massive government food aid.
A resident, who asked not to be named, questioned official priorities: “Today they run left and right creating unnecessary PR in the name of distributing food to the people affected by flash floods. The question is, who destabilized the operation of Dominion farm that once made Usonga an agricultural hub? It’s time we stop politics of sycophancy and call for what is right.”
Attempts to reach Area Chief Mr John Kanoti for comment were unsuccessful. We are yet to reach out to the area MCA, Sylvester Madialo.
There’s a complete Directorate of Disaster Management in the county government of Siaya headed by Mr. Francis Aola which, typically, waits for disaster to strike before they move.
Entire villages – Uhembo, Sega, Mahur, Udamayi, Sidundo and Uwasi – now face the prospect of full submersion if waters continue rising at the current pace. Meanwhile, Siaya Governor James Orengo appeared on national television on Thursday hailing the new Siriwo Rice Mill in Usonga Ward as a flagship achievement for local agro-processing and food security.
Deputy Governor Dr William Oduol Denge, who is vying for the governorship, described the perennial Usonga flooding as a direct consequence of wrong priorities. “The county administration has neglected structural planning for Usonga area and only sees it as a crisis management scorecard where they appear for photo optics distributing relief food and medicine while not addressing the mitigating factors,” he said. He urged the Usonga people to vote wisely come 2027.
Critics warn that without immediate action, the ambitious Siriwo project and surrounding rice fields risk becoming another white-elephant casualty of the floods.
As the long rains season intensifies, residents insist that only swift, non-political intervention can avert a full-blown disaster. With climate patterns pointing to more extreme weather, the cry from Usonga is clear: action now, before it is too late.
