Wednesday, January 25, 2006
DISASTER MANAGEMENT
The collapsed building in Nairobi brings to memory the reaction to the Nairobi bombing in 1998. Then, as now, the first government responders were the GSU fully armed with guns, only to find that what was most required were shovels and wheel barrows. I hear this time the police arrived fully armed with rifles. Whether the rifles were to be transformed into shovels remains to be seen.
The disaster response team is an unknown entity. I, like most Kenyans, don’t know whether it is under the police, army or city council or whether it really exists. They, assuming they are there, are supposed to be prepared to respond to any disaster, natural or man-made, anywhere in the country. If they exist they were caught flat-footed. There was no evidence of professionalism in the rescue mission. Eight years after the Nairobi bomb the lessons learnt seem to have been lost. We had to rely on Israel and the USA to sort out our inefficiency, just like we did in ‘98. Thank God we do not have these calamities as often as the Israelis, for if we did the Americans and Israelis would permanently camp somewhere in the city. I hate to imagine the consequence of a major disaster like an earthquake. There was an earth tremor in the city recently, people simply ran out of the buildings. What next? Suppose a building had collapsed. Do the occupants of the various buildings know the nearest fire exits? Can they maneuver the stairs in complete darkness?. Do the various buildings have a disaster management strategy. Where would the employees muster after evacuating the building? These are basics of fire drills that every office should have. Muster and roll call is not demeaning, but it helps the rescue teams know where to concentrate their efforts. Time is of essence in disaster rescue and you do not need to have it wasted on searching endlessly in areas where the occupants have all evacuated and not accounted for due to lack of operable systems.
How many times has the fire brigade arrived at a scene of fire only to run out of water? The various fire hydrants in the city stopped carrying any water decades ago. The ladders are too short and cannot reach the higher floors, the fire fighters end up just warming themselves in the fire as the buildings are consumed to the ground. I saw the picture of seven fire fighters gawking at one of them digging with the only shovel available. They might as well divest themselves of those colorful jackets, which must be suffocating in the heat, instead of just idling in a disaster area completely lost as to what to do. We must professionalise the firefighting teams to be able to cope with any disaster in the city. Professionalism is not rushing through the city with the blaring sirens, or wearing colorful uniforms and marching during Labor Day Parade, it is what you do at the scene of disaster and how you confront the challenge of your calling. Fire fighting is a calling not just another job, if you have no dedication, guts and tenacity you are a danger to the others, and yourself, best you keep off.
Our police respond to all disasters almost the same way, keep the people at bay while they take the vantage point to watch and agape. This might be useful when you have the professionals managing the situation, but this is not always the case. Most times the wananchi become the professionals. Every body wants to help but they don’t know how to help. Sometimes the injured are best left in their state if there is no immediate danger of more harm, until a professional medic is available. All the wananchi think about is to take the person to the hospital by any available means thereby handling the injured like a bag of cabbage without due care as to the nature of the injury. Immobilization is never considered since most believe that the greatest danger lies in your not getting to the hospital. They will throw you onto the back of a pick up truck, after frisking your pockets, and will mistake your fixed stare of shock as smile of appreciation.
The government was quick in getting foreign help. This of course is tacit acknowledgment of our inability to cope with such a disaster on our own, so much for our sovereignty. We are not lacking in examples of preparedness, I would even guess that these countries would be willing to train a team of disaster management experts who in turn should train others. But like every thing in Kenya, there is always the question of how do I benefit. But collapsing buildings do not ask what tribe you are, nor do they ask for the kickback.
Somebody is guilty of homicide if not murder in this disaster. Were the plans for this building properly drawn and approved by the relevant council authority? Did a qualified and registered architect draw them? Is the structural engineer a qualified and registered practitioner? Did he/she inspect the building during the various phases of construction? Was the foreman qualified for such undertaking? There are a lot of questions that the public is entitled to ask. The moment a Kenyan life was lost and the government resources were expended to sort out a private investor’s mess, then the issue is no longer private developer versus city council but the people versus the private developer, city council, architects, engineers and others. They all must answer for their negligence, omission or commission, the guilty must be punished in accordance with the law and the public must see it done.
Let us hear from our disaster management team. Let us hear how they are preparing to meet any future challenges. We do not want to hear there are no resources, no money, we will start when funds become available. Disasters will not wait until the funds become available, they will strike at any time. The funds therefore should be availed especially when we received back all those billions from Anglo Leasing. Transparency means openness, disaster management need not be done in secrecy, in times of crisis like the recent one, you will need the cooperation of the citizenry, if they are ignorant of your role they will not be swift in cooperating. Educate the people through the media of the need to respect those with the responsibility of managing such situations. They in turn should be loud and visible by uniform or insignia. Do not crowd just to see, give way to emergency vehicles. Buses, matatus, and private vehicles should divert from the disaster area. A bus ploughed into a rescue ambulance causing injury. The police should have sealed off the area, this is common sense but that is not very common among most people.
But wait, in three months the disaster will have been forgotten, new labor will have been hired, construction will resume after a number of people make token appearance in court, they will be released on bond with surety, the case will be fixed for mention in six months time. By this time we will have forgotten this whole saga and will be thinking about the world cup, the budget and the next elections. People having died in this building will be dismissed as bahati mbaya, just another statistic in our national tragedies. Until the next tragedy strikes and we will start the whole cycle again.
Charles Wairia
The disaster response team is an unknown entity. I, like most Kenyans, don’t know whether it is under the police, army or city council or whether it really exists. They, assuming they are there, are supposed to be prepared to respond to any disaster, natural or man-made, anywhere in the country. If they exist they were caught flat-footed. There was no evidence of professionalism in the rescue mission. Eight years after the Nairobi bomb the lessons learnt seem to have been lost. We had to rely on Israel and the USA to sort out our inefficiency, just like we did in ‘98. Thank God we do not have these calamities as often as the Israelis, for if we did the Americans and Israelis would permanently camp somewhere in the city. I hate to imagine the consequence of a major disaster like an earthquake. There was an earth tremor in the city recently, people simply ran out of the buildings. What next? Suppose a building had collapsed. Do the occupants of the various buildings know the nearest fire exits? Can they maneuver the stairs in complete darkness?. Do the various buildings have a disaster management strategy. Where would the employees muster after evacuating the building? These are basics of fire drills that every office should have. Muster and roll call is not demeaning, but it helps the rescue teams know where to concentrate their efforts. Time is of essence in disaster rescue and you do not need to have it wasted on searching endlessly in areas where the occupants have all evacuated and not accounted for due to lack of operable systems.
How many times has the fire brigade arrived at a scene of fire only to run out of water? The various fire hydrants in the city stopped carrying any water decades ago. The ladders are too short and cannot reach the higher floors, the fire fighters end up just warming themselves in the fire as the buildings are consumed to the ground. I saw the picture of seven fire fighters gawking at one of them digging with the only shovel available. They might as well divest themselves of those colorful jackets, which must be suffocating in the heat, instead of just idling in a disaster area completely lost as to what to do. We must professionalise the firefighting teams to be able to cope with any disaster in the city. Professionalism is not rushing through the city with the blaring sirens, or wearing colorful uniforms and marching during Labor Day Parade, it is what you do at the scene of disaster and how you confront the challenge of your calling. Fire fighting is a calling not just another job, if you have no dedication, guts and tenacity you are a danger to the others, and yourself, best you keep off.
Our police respond to all disasters almost the same way, keep the people at bay while they take the vantage point to watch and agape. This might be useful when you have the professionals managing the situation, but this is not always the case. Most times the wananchi become the professionals. Every body wants to help but they don’t know how to help. Sometimes the injured are best left in their state if there is no immediate danger of more harm, until a professional medic is available. All the wananchi think about is to take the person to the hospital by any available means thereby handling the injured like a bag of cabbage without due care as to the nature of the injury. Immobilization is never considered since most believe that the greatest danger lies in your not getting to the hospital. They will throw you onto the back of a pick up truck, after frisking your pockets, and will mistake your fixed stare of shock as smile of appreciation.
The government was quick in getting foreign help. This of course is tacit acknowledgment of our inability to cope with such a disaster on our own, so much for our sovereignty. We are not lacking in examples of preparedness, I would even guess that these countries would be willing to train a team of disaster management experts who in turn should train others. But like every thing in Kenya, there is always the question of how do I benefit. But collapsing buildings do not ask what tribe you are, nor do they ask for the kickback.
Somebody is guilty of homicide if not murder in this disaster. Were the plans for this building properly drawn and approved by the relevant council authority? Did a qualified and registered architect draw them? Is the structural engineer a qualified and registered practitioner? Did he/she inspect the building during the various phases of construction? Was the foreman qualified for such undertaking? There are a lot of questions that the public is entitled to ask. The moment a Kenyan life was lost and the government resources were expended to sort out a private investor’s mess, then the issue is no longer private developer versus city council but the people versus the private developer, city council, architects, engineers and others. They all must answer for their negligence, omission or commission, the guilty must be punished in accordance with the law and the public must see it done.
Let us hear from our disaster management team. Let us hear how they are preparing to meet any future challenges. We do not want to hear there are no resources, no money, we will start when funds become available. Disasters will not wait until the funds become available, they will strike at any time. The funds therefore should be availed especially when we received back all those billions from Anglo Leasing. Transparency means openness, disaster management need not be done in secrecy, in times of crisis like the recent one, you will need the cooperation of the citizenry, if they are ignorant of your role they will not be swift in cooperating. Educate the people through the media of the need to respect those with the responsibility of managing such situations. They in turn should be loud and visible by uniform or insignia. Do not crowd just to see, give way to emergency vehicles. Buses, matatus, and private vehicles should divert from the disaster area. A bus ploughed into a rescue ambulance causing injury. The police should have sealed off the area, this is common sense but that is not very common among most people.
But wait, in three months the disaster will have been forgotten, new labor will have been hired, construction will resume after a number of people make token appearance in court, they will be released on bond with surety, the case will be fixed for mention in six months time. By this time we will have forgotten this whole saga and will be thinking about the world cup, the budget and the next elections. People having died in this building will be dismissed as bahati mbaya, just another statistic in our national tragedies. Until the next tragedy strikes and we will start the whole cycle again.
Charles Wairia
