Nairobi, May 4 -- On the midnight of Tuesday last week, Elizabeth Machinga was fast asleep in her tiny bed which she shared with her four children in the rickety iron sheet room in Bosnia slum, Kahawa Wendani Ward in Kiambu County.

Suddenly, she was awakened by the rapidly moving iron sheets as her bed touched the walls of the room. She jumped out of bed to find out what was happening only for her to step into a sufuria surrounded by water slightly below the knee.

In no time, the water had swollen shoulders high. She is about four feet tall. She was scared stiff and let out a piercing cry for help. All around her the women and children were screaming with terror. It was all dark. The lights had gone out.

"I thought the day of death had...