Flash floods have hit parts of Kenya, cutting off roads and submerging vehicles.
In the coastal city of Mombasa, many road users were forced to abandon their cars and use motorbikes to access the airport and train station on Friday, after floods cut off roads in that section of the city.
In the county of Isiolo in northern Kenya, locals are searching for a young man who was washed away by floods as he rode a motorbike on Thursday.
The conservation organisation Save the Elephants also rescued eight people from a sinking lorry on Thursday, after floods trapped them.
It is not the first time a conservation group in Kenya has stepped in to save humans from floods – earlier this year The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust used their helicopter to rescue a stranded driver.
The meteorological department had warned that El Niño rains could hit Kenya and other East African countries from mid-October and cause flooding, infrastructure damage and possible deaths.
Neighbouring Tanzania and Somalia have also experienced heavy rains in recent days.
But on 22 October, Kenyan President William Ruto caused an uproar when he claimed that the country would not experience El Niño, a natural weather event, as had been predicted.
“The meteorological department has now said there will be no El Niño. We will only have heavy rains but they will not reach a destructive level,” Mr Ruto said.
As well as causing changes to rainfall, global temperatures typically increase during an El Niño episode.
Source:Fiilafmonline/BBC
