© Eliud Kipsang/Standard
Nicholas Kipruto Rotich assesses the damage caused by landslides in Kaptoror village, Elgeyo Marakwet County. Families in the area fear for their lives as fault lines are evident across the villages.
With a toddler firmly strapped to her back, Rose Kimutai carefully shuffles around her compound as she removes items from her house in Kaptoror village on the steep slopes of Elgeyo escarpment. Dozens of residents can also be seen hauling their property into a waiting truck to be carted away.
The mass exodus has been motivated by the development of huge fissures around their houses.
"It all began on Thursday last week following an overnight downpour. When I tried to open the door in the morning, I noticed that it wouldn't open properly. And then I saw a crack on the ground. When I managed to come out, there was an even bigger crack," Kimutai told
The Standard team when we visited the area earlier this week.
She was forced to move into a chicken coop a safe distance away until neighbours came to her rescue. "The cracks are dangerous and one can fall into them. I have nowhere else to turn to because this has always been my home. The entire village is no longer safe for us," she said.
The fissures that stretch more than ten kilometers have cut through Kapsegut, Ketigoi and Kalwal villages and residents are living in fear that the area might sink.
Comment: In neighbouring Uganda huge fissures have also just been reported.
These events are just the latest in a recent spate of epic fissures and sinkholes, the earth 'opening up', from around the world:
- Monster cracks appear in the ground after landslide and heavy rains destroy over 100 buildings in Cusco, Peru (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
- "Earth splits in two" - Huge fissures appears in the ground in Saudi Arabia (VIDEO)
- GARGANTUAN sinkhole swallows several cars and building is evacuated in Rome (VIDEO)
- 8 dead as massive sinkhole swallows eight-lane road in Foshan, China (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
- Following record rainfall, huge rift opens opens up on farm in Rotorua, New Zealand
- Widening earth crack spreads to 5 km in Manipur, India
- Huge earth crack several hundred miles long opens up in Pakistan
- Massive fissure discovered in Arizona desert
- Massive earth crack opens up in Northern Cape, South Africa
- Huge crack spreading across Antarctica ice shelf
- 400 People Evacuated in Central China after Huge Cracks Form in Ground
- Incredible drone footage captures giant cracks left by New Zealand earthquake (VIDEOS)
- Giant Earth cracks and holes swallow 150 hectares of land in San Isidro, Ecuador
- Apocalyptic Drone Footage Shows Giant Cracks In The Earth On Japan's Southern Island
- Scientists claim mysterious Menominee crack in Michigan is unusual 'geological pop-up' feature - but don't know what caused it
- Mysterious burning crack in the earth releases gas in Chimborazo, Ecuador
- Mysterious earth crack nearly a kilometer in length terrifies residents of Aponte, Colombia
- Gigantic 6 kilometre earth crack opens up along Route III in Paraguay
- Massive crack in earth mysteriously opens up in Bighorn Mountains
The current slowdown in Earth's rotation may be a contributing factor for such 'earth changes'. See also: