More than 120,000 people have been displaced, the Kenyan government says, with 22 others injured and eight reported missing.
Floods and heavy rains have killed at least 70 people in Kenya since mid-March, a government spokesman said, twice the number reported earlier this week.
Kenya and other countries in East Africa – a region highly vulnerable to climate change – have been battered by torrential downpours in recent weeks.
“The official number of Kenyans who unfortunately lost their lives due to the floods now stands at 70,” government spokesman Isaac Mwaura said on Friday X after torrential rains killed 32 people in the capital Nairobi this week.
Fifteen people were killed in the Rift Valley region, the government also said in a statement on Friday after a meeting of the country's disaster response committee.
More than 120,000 people have been displaced by the floods, the report said, with 22 others injured and eight reported missing.
The government has proposed 3.3 billion Kenyan shillings ($24.5 million) for an “initial emergency response” that includes repairing infrastructure, emergency housing and food aid.
Sixty-four public schools in Nairobi – almost a third of the total in the capital – were “substantially affected” by the floods, said Belio Kipsang, the principal secretary for education.
However, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua said “schools will reopen as scheduled” after the holidays in the middle of this month.
Kenyans have been warned to remain alert, with further heavy rains forecast across the country in the coming days as the monsoon batters East Africa.
El Nino weather added to the flooding.
A naturally occurring climate pattern typically associated with increased heat worldwide, El Nino can lead to drought in some parts of the world and heavy rain in others.
Regional destruction
Meanwhile, at least 155 people have been killed in floods and landslides in neighboring Tanzania.
Tanzanian Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said on Thursday that more than 200,000 people had been affected by the disaster.
He said houses, property, crops and infrastructure including roads, bridges, railways and schools were damaged or destroyed.
About 96,000 people have been displaced in Burundi due to months of relentless rains, the UN and government said this month.
The UN humanitarian agency (OCHA) said in an update this week that the seasonal Gu rains are intensifying in Somalia from April to June, with flash floods reported since 19 April.
It said four people were reportedly killed and more than 800 people were injured or displaced across the country.
Uganda was also hit by severe storms that caused riverbanks to burst, two deaths confirmed and several hundred villagers displaced.
Torrential rains and floods in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia killed more than 300 people late last year, just as the region was trying to recover from its worst drought in four decades, which left millions hungry.
