Seven members of the same family have died in mudslides in Bulambuli District. The landslides buried their home in Buluganya Sub County.
According to Stanley Bayola, the Resident District Commissioner Bulambuli, one body has so far been recovered by the residents. He said that they are waiting for a grader to retrieve the other bodies.
Bayola says that the displaced people have been advised to seek shelter at Masungu Primary School.
Emmanuel Ssebunyo, a resident says that the landslides were triggered by heavy rains that pounded the area from 11:00 am on Thursday before the landslides began at about 3:00 pm from Mount Elgon National Park. He adds that several animals and crops were also destroyed.
According to Ssebunyo, several people in his area are homeless after some of the homes were washed away by the landslides while others had their roofs blown off by heavy winds.
The Mount Elgon region that straddles Kenya and Uganda often receives high rainfall, which devastates villages and kills people on mountain slopes.
On 8 May President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni directed all people in flood prone areas to vacate and settle atleast 50 metres away from the river banks, 200 metres from lake shores and no buildind should be constructed on hills with a gradient greater than 30 degrees.
In 2019, the government relocated landslide victims in the landslide-prone areas in the districts of Bududa, Manafwa Sironko to Bulambuli where they constructed houses.
