Despair among families is slowly kicking as search for 51 missing persons in Mai Mahiu enters day four.

Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kithure Kindiki noted that 52 bodies had been recovered from the marooned area, while 51 persons were still missing.

One of the affected individuals, Justus Muchiri, says he has been making enquiries at the help desk set up in Mai Mahiu by government hoping his two relatives have been found.

Muchiri’s brother and sister-in-law, who worked as casual labourers in Naivasha were marooned by floods on Sunday night. Four days later, he says he does not know how to move on should the bodies remain missing.

“Our biggest fear is losing some relatives and never recovering their bodies, and there is that possibility due to the amount of debris,” he was quoted as saying by Standard.

This comes a day after 151 Kenya Defence Forces officers were deployed to assist in search and rescue operations for the 51 missing persons.

Meanwhile, government is ramping up efforts to assist victims recover their lost documents by taking in their bio data for processing of new IDs and birth certificates.

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua also assured the affected families that government would facilitate burial of the deceased to ease the burden on their distraught relatives. Further, that medical fees for those in different hospitals will be waived.

As at Thursday, May 2, nine people had lost their lives bringing to 188, the number of lives lost due to floods and landslides occasioned by the ongoing heavy rains across the country.

A statement from the Ministry of Interior says that 125 people have been reported injured, with 90 people currently missing.

In what is slowly becoming a humanitarian crisis, approximately 165,500 people have been displaced b y the heavy floods and mudslides, which translates to a total of 33,100 households and 1,967 schools.