Background: Kano Plains, Kisumu County, Kenya experiences more severe river floods which is slow onset and predictable. The cost of annual relief and rehabilitation measures in Kano Plains alone is estimated at Kshs 57 million or US$ 600,000. This is attributed to the fact that since disasters do not occur frequently, people feel highly burdened to participate in community-based disaster preparedness activities during normal times when nothing happens. In this context, perceived risk does not contribute directly to taking protective responses. Thus, the socio-economic characteristics of the community and how these influence uptake of precautionary measures is the subject of inquiry in this paper. Results: The data for the study were collected through a survey of 384 households, five focus group discussions, and 21 key informant interviews. Descriptive analysis and frequency distribution were used to describe the data. Chi-Square test to determine the strength of the association between the variables and uptake of precautionary measures suggests no significant difference between education level and uptake. Binary logistic regression showed a significant difference on low uptake between those who lived within 2 Kms of River Nyando compared to those who lived more than 2 Kms from the river. Conclusions: Findings confirmed that high level of uptake of precautionary measures was dependent on distance, household composition, income, occupation of the household and social network type. It is hoped that these findings will encourage the government of Kenya to develop a policy that specifically informs residents of the flood prone areas on allowable distance from the river to where houses can be erected because some precautionary measures the households have employed involved moving to higher grounds.