Disaster Risk Reduction Day Celebrations: Safety drill gets everyone off-guard including media

Bungoma County Emergency Department has today 13^th October 2023 early morning conducted a Safety Drill to mark the Disaster Risk Reduction Day celebrations at Kaborom in Mt. Elgon Constituency where a mock (stage-managed) stone-harvesting accident rescue was done. Rescued victims were then rushed to Webuye hospital by a multi agency team led by the County Commander Mr. Francis Kooli and involving Kenya Red Cross Society.

This exercise was meant to check the level of disaster preparedness of the emergency team

ikuweikuwe.com has nevertheless learnt that some media houses have gone ahead to report incorrectly that two people died in the “incident”.

Does Bungoma have a fire station?

A fire station (also called a fire house, fire hall, fire-men’s hall, or engine house) is a structure or other area for storing firefighting apparatuses such as fire engines and related vehicles, personal protective equipment, fire hoses and other specialized equipment. Fire stations frequently contain working and living space for the firefighters and support staff ~ Wikipedia

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS:

The disaster management depart is tailored to provide deliberate interventions during emergencies. Last year the department constructed 6 bridges throughout the county as an intervention while they are currently working on a policy that will guide future engagements

Firemen have made great sacrifices but still the state of disaster preparedness, sensitization and capacity building is wanting. Meetings involving the depart head and other concerned sectors have been done before but not training of own staff.

Disaster fund: The fund is purposed at equipping and therefore advancing the fire station, mitigating interventions whenever disaster strikes.

Bungoma Fire services are domesticated at Kanduyi (HQ) only… There are no sub branches and therefore any emergencies depend on the HQ for rescue.

The key departmental needs to necessitate proper 24/7 services:

• Toll free line to enhance communication
• Allowances: Risk and extraneous allowances has never been accorded to the staff who have religiously responded to disasters even at ungodly hours. Today they were up by 4am for the Mt. Elgon exercise with no single coin in allowance accorded to them despite allegations that Kshs. 600,000 was allocated for the exercise.
• Bench-marking at excelled counties i.e Nairobi, Kiambu, Makueni, Nakuru and/or Eldoret
• A well equipped office with enough human resource. It must be noted that the Kanduyi office was invaded by the Roads depart which took over 95% space of the fire station leaving a small portion for the fire depart to use.
• Uniform: During disaster response, one can hardly differentiate between the public and firemen, this therefore demands that the emergency response team be properly dressed, equipped for the job.
• ▪Accommodation: Firemen need accommodation facilities within the station for speedy responses

▪Staffing and training… Bungoma has eleven members of staff with no training having been ever conducted since the inception of the Kanduyi Fire Station. Whereas there should be three shifts per day, its important to note that due to lack of manpower the available employees strain to keep the county safer.

▪They harass the public on fire compliance certificate but when it comes to combating fire they have:

▪FUEL: The County must consider procuring fuel at the nearest petrol station for speedy action whenever disaster strikes. Currently fire engines fuel in Webuye

• Firemen have become a public enemy due to poor delayed services

Availability of AIE holder and therefore funds for emergencies;

• • It is important to note that the current AIE holder Mrs Caren Wanyonyi is largely an absentee officer on the field who also missed today’s important drill as she is said to be in Kisumu on official duty.