2010-04-30
NAIROBI (Reuters) - A landslide in western Kenya after relentless heavy rains has killed 10 people and more may be buried in the mud, the Kenya Red Cross (KRC) said on Friday.

KRC said the latest deaths took the number of people killed by floods and landslides in Kenya so far this year to 100.

El Nino weather patterns across east Africa are blamed for the wild storms that have hit east Africa's biggest economy. A massive landslide in neighbouring Uganda killed scores of people in a remote village in March.

"Ten bodies have been retrieved from the landslide scene and 10 other people have been injured," Nelly Muluka, communications officer for KRC, told Reuters by telephone.

"It is feared that some people have been buried in the landslide but we don't know how many, maybe dozens," she said.

The landslide struck late on Thursday in Kitony village in the Marakwet district of western Kenya, she said. A KRC team is on the scene and has launched rescue operations.

El Nino, which means "little boy" in Spanish, caused abnormally heavy rainfall in 1997/98 in Kenya, where last year severe drought also hampered economic growth.