With shovels, rescuers search for rising number of Kenya flood victims

MAI MAHIU, Kenya (Reuters) -Rescuers were digging through mud with shovels on Tuesday to recover victims' bodies as the number of people still missing rose steadily after rains triggered heavy flooding and landslides across Kenya.

At least 48 people were killed and a further 84 remained missing after a mudslide and flash floods hit the town of Mai Mahiu in central Kenya early on Monday, the Kenya Red Cross said.

Survivors in Mai Mahiu described an onslaught of water that swept away houses, cars and railway tracks.

"When I opened the door, the water gushed in and made its way through the kitchen," said resident Anne Gachie.

"My husband managed to quickly manoeuvre and get out. My daughters who were in the next room were swept out of the house by the force of the water."

Tabitha Wanja lost eight members of her family, including her seven-month-old niece. "This is a bad dream... We have lost nearly all our family members. This is the darkest moment for us," she said before breaking into tears.

In all, at least 169 people have died across Kenya since last month due to heavy rains and flooding.

More than 190,000 people have been forced from their homes, including 147,000 in the capital Nairobi, according to the president's office. Several parts of the country should expect further heavy rainfall in the coming days, it said.

"Those citizens who are living in landslide-prone areas, we are asking you to leave," Kenyan President William Ruto said in a speech while visiting flood survivors in Mai Mahiu.

"The risk of losing lives is real," he said, adding that he was instructing the military to help in the search for victims.

Dozens more people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced by heavy downpours in Tanzania and Burundi, with scientists saying climate change is causing more intense and frequent extreme weather events.

The eastern Kenyan county of Garissa, where four people were killed when their boat capsized over the weekend and 23 others were rescued from the floodwaters, has reported 16 people missing, the interior ministry said.

At least 120 people were killed in Kenya late last year by flooding caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon. Those rains followed the worst drought that large parts of East Africa had experienced in decades.

(Reporting by Humphrey Malalo and Reuters Newsroom; writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Hereward Holland, Aaron Ross, Angus MacSwan and Gareth Jones)