Kenya Railways said floods and landslides had caused an “unexpected delay” in deliveries to Mombasa port and along the cargo rail line to Nairobi.
“Consequently, this has affected normal train operations, including cargo transfers, loading as well as offloading activities at the Port of Mombasa,” the state-owned railway said in a statement on Saturday posted on X, formerly Twitter.
A landslide in one section of the line between Mombasa and Nairobi had resulted in “the closure of that section for all freight trains” but limited passenger services were still moving, it added.
Mombasa, the country’s second-largest city, and its port and railway cargo line serve not just Kenya but also landlocked neighbours including Uganda, South Sudan and Rwanda.
British charity Save the Children on Thursday said more than 100 people, including 16 children, had died and over 700,000 been forced out of their homes in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia due to flash flooding.
The number of people displaced by heavy rains and floods in Somalia “has nearly doubled in one week” to 649,000, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in its latest figures issued on Saturday.
