World Tour: Recovery from deadly flooding in Kenya

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour with our reporter in Africa, Onize Ohikere

AUDIO: [Sound of rescuers]

Kenya flooding — We start today’s roundup in Kenya where authorities have delayed school reopenings by a week as they respond to deadly flooding.

Heavy rainfall that began in mid-March has killed more than 160 people. On Monday, authorities said at least 45 people died in one town in western Kenya after a clogged runway tunnel caused flash floods and a landslide.

Authorities said the storm flooded scores of schools in the capital Nairobi and destroyed roads and bridges.

Dickson Makasi, one of the residents of the Mathare slum in Nairobi, said he watched part of his home get washed away as his family tried to avoid drowning.

MAKASI: My two rooms here were washed away by flood and right now we don't have anything. I have my children. By good luck, my children were not around.

The heavy storms have also hit other East African countries. More than 150 people have died in Tanzania while flooding has affected 200,000 people in Burundi.

AUDIO: [Protesters cheering]

Georgia protests — Over in the country of Georgia, sandwiched between Russia and Turkey, tens of thousands of protesters are still opposing a controversial proposal called the “foreign agent bill.”

The protests began about two weeks ago when Georgian lawmakers reintroduced plans for the bill. It will require non-government organizations and independent media organizations that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from foreign donors to register as “bearing the interests of a foreign power.”

The Justice Ministry will also monitor them and could mandate them to share sensitive information.

Opponents have said it is similar to a Russian law that authorities have used to target independent media and groups.

Nika Melia is the co-founder of the Georgian opposition Ahali party.

MELIA: [Speaking Georgian]

He says here that the protest is a popular movement that won’t stop.

Thousands of pro-government supporters turned out in Tbilisi on Monday to back the bill.

The bill has passed its first reading in parliament. It still has to pass two more stages before becoming law.

AUDIO: [Protesters chanting]

Australia protests — Over in Australia, tens of thousands of people joined nationwide demonstrations to decry violence against women.

Some 27 women have died this year alone from gender-based violence. That’s an average of one woman killed every four days.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joined the protesters in Canberra. He called the issue a national crisis.

ALBANESE: We need to change the culture, we need to change attitudes, we need to change the legal system, we need to change the approach by all governments because it's not enough to support victims. We need to focus on the perpetrators and focus on prevention.

In April, authorities said a suspect who stabbed six people to death at a Sydney shopping center targeted women.

Bangladesh heatwave — We wrap up today in Bangladesh where millions of children returned to school this week.

AUDIO: [Classroom]

An ongoing heatwave forced authorities to close schools for a week. Meteorologists said nearly 75 percent of the country has experienced continuous heat waves that have lasted nearly a month.

Temperatures rose as high as 108 degrees Fahrenheit in parts of the country last week.

Soumitra Ghosh was among the parents who dropped off their children at school on Sunday.

GHOSH: [Speaking Bengali]

He says here that the high temperatures affect the students’ productivity and concentration.

Unusually hot weather is also affecting other Asian countries. In April, some 47,000 schools suspended classes in the Philippines.

And in Thailand, heatstroke has killed at least 30 people this year—seven short of the country’s total heatstroke deaths last year.

That’s it for today’s WORLD Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere in Abuja, Nigeria.

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