The child's death brought the toll from the floods in Kenya to at least 40 and the United Nations said the number of people affected is now 723,000, including tens of thousands of Somali refugees.

"For me, there is a national disaster and I do not have to remind the government of its responsibilities," said the chief of the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), Abbas Gulled, adding he hoped a declaration would be made this week.

The last time Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki declared a national disaster was at the end of last year, when a scorching drought that hit east Africa put millions at risk, many of whom live in areas now inundated by the floods.

"We hope it will do that within this week for international partners and aid agencies to come forward to assist us to alleviate suffering before it gets out of hand," Gulled told AFP.

At the weekend, the relief agency ActionAid made a similar call, saying the floods, sparked by four weeks of torrential and unusually heavy seasonal rains, had wrought widespread suffering and hindered aid efforts.

"The president needs to prioritise this immediately," ActionAid Kenya director Joyce Umbima said in a statement. "Things are getting out of control. We need to deal with this problem head-on. People are suffering terribly."

"They are now at risk of disease and landslides are becoming a problem," she said.

Fuelling health concerns, authorities in northern Kenya reported the first death from a flood-related disease where a young child, already suffering from malnutrution died of diarrhoea that has hospitalized scores in the region.

With tens of thousands forced from their homes and into crowded and unsanitary camps in the area, hospital officials said they were overwhelmed by patients with new admissions forced to sleep on ward floors and corridors.

"We have one mortality, but so far we have admitted at least 65 children suffering from malaria, diarrhoea and malnutrition," said Khadija Abdalla, superintendant of the Garissa District Hospital.

"We have been forced to admit patients way beyond our capacity and many are forced to sleep on the floor and corridors," she told AFP from the facility, about 300 kilometers (190 miles) northeast of Nairobi. "Our fear is a massive outbreak of diseases in the camps."

Officials said medical staff from the health ministry and Red Cross had rushed to the area to treat the patients and improve sanitation conditions.

In neighbouring Somalia, where floods have killed at least 96 people, displaced more than 300,000 and affected about a million others, officials have also sounded the alarm for outbreaks of waterborne diseases, particularly cholera, which has already been confirmed in two areas.

In both countries the floods have destroyed farmlands, disrupted food supplies, cut off villages and washed away roads, which in Somalia complicates the delivery of aid to the most vulnerable and impoverished in remote areas.

The flooding has been caused by unusually heavy seasonal rains across the Horn of Africa, which last year at this time was facing a searing drought that put some 11 million people in five countries at risk.

earlier related report
Child Dies As Waterborne Disease Hits Northern Kenya
Nairobi (AFP) Nov 26 - Fears of an explosion of waterborne diseases surged Monday in flood-stricken northern Kenya, where a child died of diarrheoa that has hospitalized scores in the region, officials said. With tens of thousands of people forced from their homes and into crowded and unsanitary temporary camps, hospital officials said they were overwhelmed by admissions with newcomers forced to sleep on ward floors and corridors.

The child, who was already suffering from malnutrition, passed away in the Garissa District Hospital, 300 kilometers (190 miles) northeast of Nairobi, after nearby camps for the people displaced by flooding were hit by disease outbreaks.

"We have one mortality, but so far we have admitted at least 65 children suffering from malaria, diarrhoea and malnutrition," hospital superintendent Khadija Abdalla told AFP. "All the cases were from the camps."

"We have been forced to admit patients way beyond our capacity and many are forced to sleep on the floor and corridors," she said. "Our fear is a massive outbreak of diseases in the camps."

"We are in need of essential medicine, clean water, oral rehydration salts and vitamin tablets," Abdalla said.

Kenyan health officials have warned of possible disease outbreaks in flood-hit regions, where torrential rains have killed at least 40 people and displaced around 200,000 others over recent weeks.

Officials said medical staff from the health ministry and Kenya Red Cross Society had rushed to the area to treat the patients and improve sanitation conditions.

Humanitarian groups say some 300,000 people across the east African nation need humanitarian supplies in the coming months owing to the effects of floods.

In neighbouring Somalia, where floods have killed at least 96 people, displaced more than 300,000 and affected about million others, health officials have also sounded the alarm for outbreaks of waterborne diseases, particularly cholera, which has already been confirmed in two areas.

In both countries the floods have destroyed farmlands, disrupted food supplies, cut off villages and washed away roads, which in Somalia complicates the delivery of aid to the most vulnerable and impoverished in remote areas.

The flooding has been caused by unusually heavy seasonal rains across the Horn of Africa, which last year at this time was facing a scorching drought that put some 11 million people in five countries at risk.

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