KENYA: A strong earthquake shakes East Africa causing thousands of workers to evacuate buildings in Nairobi

Record ID: 363164

  • Title: KENYA: A strong earthquake shakes East Africa causing thousands of workers to evacuate buildings in Nairobi
  • Date: 6th December 2005
  • Summary: WOMAN TEXTING ON HER MOBILE AS SHE LEAVES A BUILDING
  • Embargoed: 21st December 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA4ESXBFFZ3DXORIGKIZZWWA0S1
  • Story Text: A strong earthquake shook East Africa on Monday in the Lake Tanganyika region, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said on its web site.
    The USGS said the 6.8 magnitude quake struck at 1219 GMT in a region it named as Congo-Tanzania and placed it 55 km (34 miles) southeast of the town of Kalemie in the Democratic Republic of Congo and 975 km southwest of Nairobi.
    Hundreds of people evacuated office buildings in the centre of Nairobi after the earth shook and waited for any information about what was going on.
    "People came running down -- scared -- because you don't know what it is. You're moving this way and that," said Tabitha Nyambati, demonstrating how the tremor made her sway.
    The streets were clogged with people trying to leave the central business district by car and the Kenyan meteorological office said there were no reports of deaths so far.
    Met official Peter Abende told Nation Television that they had 'not received any information on what damage the tremor had caused or whether there were any fatalities.'
    The earthquake did damage homes in the town of Kalemie in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and local residents reported some people had been killed and injured, a United Nations official said.
    He said relief workers were checking the hospitals in the small town of just under 200,000 inhabitants on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, which was reported to be close to the centre of the magnitude 6.8 earthquake that was felt from Congo to Kenya.
    The USGS site said a 6.5 magnitude quake hit close by in October 2000, injuring seven people and causing little damage.
    Officials in Tanzania said the tremor was felt there but that they had received no reports of any injuries.
    The quake was also felt in the Rwandan capital Kigali, which lies directly north on a USGS map and by residents in Burundi's capital of Bujumbura.
    Simeon Nduwimana, a taxi driver, told Reuters by telephone, 'we felt the ground shake,' adding that the situation was now normal and he had not seen any damaged buildings.
    The East African Rift System is a 50-60 km (31-37 miles) wide zone of active volcanics and faulting that extends north-south in eastern Africa for more than 3000 km (1864 miles) from Ethiopia in the north to Zambezi in the south, the USGS said on its Web site.
    It is a rare example of an active continental rift zone, where a continental plate is attempting to split into two plates which are moving away from one another.
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