The extent and significance of mass-movements in Eastern Africa: case studies of some major landslides in Uganda and Kenya

The East African region has experienced major landslides in recent years. These landslides have caused many fatalities and injuries, loss of many hectares of productive farmlands and destruction to infrastructure such as roads, railways and bridges. The warm and wet climate of the landslide-prone regions causes rapid weathering and produces a regolith weaker than the underlying rock with an interface between the two layers. This interface serves as the most common plane along which landslides are initiated once it becomes saturated. Landslides in the region are associated with steep topography, human activities such as deforestation, overgrazing, and unplanned farming on steep slopes and are induced by earthquakes and high intensity of rainfall. The landslide-prone areas are agriculturally very productive and the inhabitants depend on agriculture for their livelihood. The areas also contribute substantially to the national food reserve. The landslides are therefore a burden to the economies of the individual farmers and national governments of the region.