Fwd: KENYA: Preventable disasters - why they keep occurring
Elisabeth Janaina
NAIROBI, 19 October 2011 (IRIN) - Fires, road accidents and collapsed
buildings made September 2011 a particularly deadly month in terms of
avoidable disasters in Kenya [
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=93771 ].
IRIN spoke to experts and officials about the chronic lack of
adequate disaster prevention and response mechanisms and distilled
their comments into five broad themes.
Impunity
"The reasons why Kenya keeps getting it wrong are pretty clear,"
wrote the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) in an e-mail to IRIN. "The
main one is impunity, not just on the part of the authorities, but on
the part of ordinary people as well.
"There is a culture of people not taking responsibility for their
actions. Some people believe they can use their positions, connections
in the 'right places', and even money, to escape justice.
"In the case of the Sinai [Nairobi slum] pipeline explosion, [
http://www.kenyaredcross.org/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=327&cntnt01returnid=333
] this attitude, combined with politicians' quest for votes and
reluctance by the authorities to defy prevailing opinion, produced
catastrophic results.
"The tragedy is not that this disaster happened; it is that it could
have been prevented," the KRCS says. Plans by the Kenya Pipeline
Company (KPC) for residents settled near the oil pipeline to vacate in
2008 failed due to political interference.
The blind eye generally turned by police to speeding and drunk
driving, especially when money changes hands (driving licences can be
bought with little regard to aptitude) contributes to Kenya's 3,000 or
so annual road traffic accidents.
Early warning, late action
Droughts cannot be prevented, but they are easily predicted and Kenya
has a functioning early warning system. Yet the alarm bells
consistently fail to stop droughts degenerating into disasters, such
as the current crisis in which 3.7 million people require food aid.
"The warnings were clear from the onset," said Edwin Kuria, Save the
Children UK's Regional Emergencies Manager. "[But] these early warning
systems are not always accompanied by early action.
"If we become proactive, we will be able to do adequate
pre-positioning of resources and supplies, build relationships, manage
risks, monitor triggers and programme sustainable interventions. We
cannot be exchanging business cards in the middle of a disaster," he
added.
Marginalization
There is a clear correlation between the poor infrastructure and low
socio-economic indicators prevalent in northern Kenya and the tendency
for weather shocks there to become crises. [
http://www.irinnews.org/IndepthMain.aspx?reportid=87469&indepthid=83 ]
"There is a need to link humanitarian response to development," says
Choice Okoro, head of communications and advocacy at the UN Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Kenya.
"In drought management, the government has to take leadership.
Drought is a slow onset disaster requiring a strong policy-oriented
response," Okoro said.
"Northern Kenya can be said to be under a permanent crisis; it's a
region with fewer than 10 doctors, no specialists; only the rich can
access required healthcare services and many lives are lost daily
whether we are in a disaster or not," Mohamed Ahmed, a project officer
for the Nomadic Communities Rehabilitation Programme, told IRIN in
2010 [ http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=90155 ]
Laws in limbo
A detailed National Disaster Management Policy [
http://www.sprogrammes.go.ke/images/ndpo.pdf ] was drafted in 2006 but
turf wars between politicians and government departments have
prevented it being enacted into law.
The document calls for establishing a national disaster strategy,
stockpiles of food to add to grain reserves, disaster trust funds,
district contingency plans and insurance initiatives.
The document is now being revised by the Ministry of State for
Special Programmes, the department responsible for coordination.
According to Robinson Ocharo, a professor at the University of
Nairobi, implementing the policy would enable the setting up of a
central body to "coordinate all institutions in activities of
prevention and mitigation. At present, each [organization] moves with
its own idea of quick action."
"Without it, we don't have the structures; there is nothing much we
can do," added Maj. Jason Nyandege of the National Disaster Operations
Centre.
Information gap
"Have we packaged persuasive information on hazards?" asked Ocharo.
Such information, he said, needed to be drawn up with consideration
for different target audiences based on their vulnerability levels.
An element of fear also needs to be included in the messages to make
them more persuasive. "The fear element is what the hazard will do to
you if you act in a certain way or if you fail to act," Ocharo said.
In 2008, three years before the Sinai slum fire tragedy, a local
television station highlighted the risks in a feature [
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxEkBnzwypI ]. Residents interviewed
appeared oblivious to the dangers.
"We hear there is a pipeline here, but people still live here. If the
pipe was above the ground we wouldn't work here. But the pipe is
underground, our small fires can cause no harm," said one resident.
In the wake of the latest fire, residents reported it was not unusual
to see petrol running through sewage pipes - "This time it was Super,"
one man told a TV station, referring to the blend in question - yet
this phenomenon appears not to have been brought to the attention of
the authorities.
aw/js/cb/am/mw
[END]
This report online: http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=94002
© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis:
http://www.irinnews.org/
[This item comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis
service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United
Nations or its Member States. Reposting or reproduction, with
attribution, for non-commercial purposes is permitted. Terms and
conditions: http://www.irinnews.org/copyright.aspx
IRIN partners: UAE, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway,
Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the IHC. More information:
http://www.irinnews.org/donors.aspx
This mail is from an automatic address. Contact IRIN at:
feed...@irinnews.org. Revise/stop your subscription:
http://bit.ly/9nCoUP ]
Subscribed email: elisabet...@gmail.com