As Lake Victoria’s water levels continue to surge, residents who have long lived near its shores are now contemplating the relocation of their loved ones’ graves to safer locations.
Over the past five years, the lake’s water level has risen significantly, resulting in the loss of considerable agricultural land and inundating homes and beach houses along its coastline, spanning areas such as Migori, Homa Bay, Kisumu, and Siaya.
Jim Otieno, a resident and fisherman from Nyatike, reports that many families residing near the lake are already preparing to move inland due to the persistent threat posed by the rising waters.
The prospect of relocating graves underscores the urgent need for adaptation measures in response to the changing environmental conditions, as communities grapple with the consequences of the lake’s swelling waters.
“Some people are making formal plans to exhume for relocation purposes, remains of their loved, some buried as far back as 40 years,” Otieno told Wananchi Reporting.
A family in Migori county told Wananchi reporting that they are in discussions as a clan to see if they can exhume for re-burying, the remains of their kin who died over 10 years ago.
“Our family chose a spot that would serve as our family’s burial site in the 1990s. At the time, the waters of the lake were very very far. No one could have imagined the waters rising this fast to this level, and now we are making formal plans to move the remains of a member of our family who died and was buried not far from the lake,” said a spokesman of the family.
The rising waters have also eaten up rich fishing grounds and agricultural land thereby affecting important economic activities.
