The Kenyan government is to dispatch geological experts to its western region to probe new volcanic activities on Mount Elgon on its border with Uganda, which threatens about 20 000 people, officials said on Monday.
”We visited the mountain site on Saturday, where smoke has been billowing from a cave, but as we were unable to determine whether this was the beginning of new volcanic activity, we decided to call in experts from Nairobi to probe it,” Mount Elgon District Commissioner James ole Serian said on Monday.
”The specialists are expected to come in on Tuesday or Wednesday,” Serian said by telephone from his Mount Elgon district headquarters at the foot of Kenya’s second-highest mountain, which is 4 321m high.
It has been dormant for more than a century.
Serian said his security team has not yet decided whether evacuation of about 20 000 people living near the mountain will be necessary.
”We have not reached the stage of evacuating people living near the mountain, but we are warning the public to keep off the area, especially the cave spewing out smoke and gases that could be harmful to their health,” Serian said.
”Everything is still under control and there is no need for evacuation,” he added, pointing out that temperatures in the caves have become hotter than normal.
Other witnesses also said on Monday that the volcano is emitting smoke accompanied by a pungent smell and that the floors of caves in the mountain have started to crack, temperatures have risen and birds near the mountain have died.
”Those are signs of stress release from the brittle rocks in the crust of the Earth,” government geologist Shadrack Kimomo said by telephone in Nairobi. — Sapa-AFP