Even as drought persists in parts of Kenya's arid north, intense rains are claiming lives in other parts of the country – flooding slums in the capital Nairobi, sweeping away hikers in the Rift Valley, and destroying crops.

Many Kenyans shake their heads in dismay at the increasingly extreme and volatile weather, which is costing money as well as lives in east Africa's economic powerhouse.

ICDDR,B is spreading its technical know-how to African countries to help them overcome tropical diseases.
Two doctors of the organization who are also experts in cholera management, returned home on Wednrsday after a two-week visit to the Horn of African countries-including Somalia and Kenya.
They trained more than 50 health professionals there including doctors and nurses, in cholera case management.

President Barack Obama on Friday said the United States has a “moral imperative” to lead the fight against hunger and malnutrition in Africa despite shrinking national budgets around the world.

Two ICDDR,B doctors, also experts in cholera management, returned home Wednesday after a two-week visit to the Horn of African countries —Somalia and Kenya — where they trained more than 50 health professionals, including doctors and nurses, in cholera case management.
Heavy rainfall caused increased fears of a wide- scale cholera outbreak in an already volatile region marred by warfare and subsequent breakdown in basic infrastructure and services.

In flood-hit fields in the Philippines, farmers are testing a hardy new variety of rice that can survive completely submerged for more than two weeks.

In Kenya's Kibera slum, poor urban families are turning around their diets and incomes just by learning to grow vegetables in sack gardens outside their doors. And in India, a push to help marginalised rural communities gain title to their land is leading to a significant drop in hunger.

The latest UNICEF report presents a hard-hitting view of the condition of poor children in urban areas.

Massive boulders crashed onto houses on Wednesday in Mathare, a Nairobi slum, killing at least eight people after a night of heavy rains, police and the Kenyan Red Cross said.

“Eight people have died in this disaster. Six bodies were retrieved from under the rubble, another died on the way to hospital while the eighth died in hospital,” a police officer involved in the rescue operation said.

Hopes of retrieving any more people alive from the rubble faded late in the afternoon after bulldozers cleared the site.