Kenyan landslide death toll rises to 26 as flash floods hamper search for survivors

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The death toll from a deadly landslide in western Kenya has risen to 26 after four more bodies were retrieved on Sunday, shortly before rescue efforts to find survivors were suspended due to a flash flood.

Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said 25 people are still missing and that the government had intensified the search mission, with the military deploying four aircrafts to help teams access the area that has been completely cut off after roads were washed away during Saturday’s landslide.

On Sunday, search teams had to abandon the site after flash floods from a hill in the Chesongoch area in Kenya’s Rift Valley region.

Heavy rains continue across Kenya, and floods have been reported in several counties, displacing thousands of people.

The government has urged those living in flood or landslide prone areas to move, as the rains are expected to continue across the country.

Murkomen said the government would continue airlifting supplies to those affected, including to 15 schools that have been cut off, and that ongoing national examination papers would be airlifted to candidates.

He said the government would cover the medical bills of more than 30 injured people and resettle dozens of others whose homes were swept away.

“It is very sad that families have lost five to six immediate family members,” the minister told journalists on Sunday.

Oscar Okum, regional manager for the Kenya Red Cross, said the Rift Valley area was still susceptible to land slides.

“Today, while we were doing search and recovery and rescue, we have had roads that are already opened being populated again by mudslides. So it’s still an active incidence and we urge the community members to move to safer grounds for purposes of their safety, lives and livelihoods as well,” he said.

Rescue teams carry bodies of victims of a landslide in the hilly area of Chesongoch in Elgeyo Marakwet county, western Kenya, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

Rescue teams carry bodies of victims of a landslide in the hilly area of Chesongoch in Elgeyo Marakwet county, western Kenya, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

People inspect the scene of a landslide that killed scores in the hilly area of Chesongoch in Elgeyo Marakwet county, western Kenya, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

People inspect the scene of a landslide that killed scores in the hilly area of Chesongoch in Elgeyo Marakwet county, western Kenya, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

Rescue teams carry bodies of victims of a landslide in the hilly area of Chesongoch in Elgeyo Marakwet county, western Kenya, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A 24-year-old man was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of an elderly Thai man whose 2021 killing in San Francisco helped spark a national movement against anti-Asian American violence.

A jury did not find Antoine Watson guilty of murder when it returned a verdict Thursday for the January 2021 attack on 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee. Jurors found Watson guilty on the lesser charges of involuntary manslaughter and assault.

The office of San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins declined to comment, saying that the jury was still empaneled. Jurors will return Jan. 26 to hear arguments on aggravating factors and sentencing will be scheduled once that is completed, the office said in an email.

Vicha Ratanapakdee was out for his usual morning walk in the quiet neighborhood he lived in with his wife, daughter and her family when Watson charged at him and knocked him to the ground. The encounter was captured on a neighbor's security camera. Ratanapakdee died two days later, never regaining consciousness.

His family says he was attacked because of his race, but hate crime charges were not filed and the argument was not raised in trial. Prosecutors have said hate crimes are difficult to prove absent statements by the suspect.

Watson testified on the stand that he was in a haze of confusion and anger at the time of the unprovoked attack, according to KRON-TV. He said he lashed out and didn't know that Ratanapakdee was Asian or elderly.

San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju, whose office defended Watson, extended his sympathies to the victim's family and said the defendant is “fully remorseful for his mistake.”

“While this death was a terrible tragedy and has garnered a lot of press attention, the importance of our legal system is that it gives us a chance to look at the facts in a balanced way,” he said in a statement.

Hundreds of people in five other U.S. cities joined in commemorating the anniversary of Ratanapakdee's death in 2022, all of them seeking justice for Asian Americans who have been harassed, assaulted, and even killed in alarming numbers since the start of the pandemic.

Asians in America have long been subject to prejudice and discrimination, but the attacks escalated sharply after the coronavirus first appeared in late 2019 in Wuhan, China. More than 10,000 hate incidents against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders were reported to the Stop AAPI Hate coalition from March 2020 through September 2021.

The incidents involved shunning, racist taunting and physical assaults.

FILE - Flowers are left with pictures of 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee during a rally attended by hundreds of people on Jan. 30, 2022, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Janie Har, File)

FILE - Monthanus Ratanapakdee holds a photo of her father, 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee, and stands in front of the San Francisco apartment building where he was attacked last year and later died of his injuries, on Jan. 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Terry Chea, File)