Court Orders DPP to Investigate 2024 Mai Mahiu Flood Deaths

The Environment and Lands Court has directed the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to investigate the 2024 Mai Mahiu flood deaths, in a ruling that found the disaster was not simply an act of God.

Justice Mary Oundo, delivering judgment in a case brought by affected residents, said evidence showed that blockage of a railway tunnel beneath a bridge near Old Kijabe had effectively created a dam, triggering the mudslides that swept through the area below.

The tunnel, known locally as the dark tower, is a 183 metre long, 10 foot diameter concrete structure built to carry a soil embankment bridge for the Kenya-Uganda Railway across a 100 metre gorge near Old Kijabe town.

The April 2024 disaster killed dozens of people after the tunnel became blocked and floodwater built up behind it before bursting through, sweeping away homes and residents in the villages below Mai Mahiu.

Alongside the directive to the DPP, the court ordered the government to carry out safety and hydrological tests on the rebuilt structure and to submit quarterly reports on its condition, following complaints from residents that a lack of maintenance and inspection had contributed to the tragedy.

The ruling followed a case in which 143 residents had separately petitioned the court to block Kenya Railways Corporation from reconstructing a concrete tunnel and soil embankment bridge on the same site, arguing the design was outdated and posed a continued risk to people living downstream.

Kenya Railways had argued that any further delay to the reconstruction risked diplomatic tension with Uganda, given the tunnel's role in carrying the Kenya-Uganda Railway line, and that residents downstream remained exposed to danger without a completed structure in place.

The court had earlier lifted interim orders halting construction of the new tunnel, allowing Kenya Railways to proceed with rebuilding works even as the wider case over responsibility for the original disaster continued.

Survivors of the 2024 floods have previously said promises made by government officials in the aftermath of the disaster, including resettlement and compensation, remained largely unfulfilled more than a year later.

The direction for the DPP to investigate the deaths opens the door to potential criminal accountability for the disaster, beyond the civil and regulatory findings the court has already made regarding the tunnel's construction and maintenance.