Kenya dam disaster toll hits 48 with all missing accounted for

Kenyan emergency workers have found three more bodies after a dam bust last week, police said on Monday, bringing the toll from the tragedy to 48, while authorities confirmed no one else was missing.

The body of an 11-year-old boy was found on Monday after two others were uncovered on Sunday, as rescuers spent five days picking through mud and debris in Solai, near the central Rift Valley city of Nakuru.

"The bodies were not reported missing which means there could have been people who had visited the area. The search is going on, it was only scaled down but not called off," said regional police commissioner Mwongo Chimwaga.

On Friday authorities had said 40 people were still missing, however a search among those displaced and already found dead revealed that all had been accounted for by Saturday.

It was on Wednesday last week that a portion of the earthen wall of the dam collapsed, sending millions of litres of water coursing down a muddy slope, engulfing nearby settlements and destroying power lines over a stretch of some 10km.

The disaster came after weeks of torrential rains in Kenya, with flooding and mudslides leaving 179 dead.