THIS IS MCGW STATEMENT DATED 2013 , NOTHING HAS CHANGED WE ALL SAW THE SAME MESS AND DISORGANIZATION DURING THE OLD TOWN FIRE YESTERDAY.... To : Hon Ali Hassan Joho - Governor, Mombasa county THE CURRENT MOMBASA COUNTY Disaster Management Team should be disband and NEW ones formed at constituency level. This is a call to disband the current Disaster management team which has failed Mombasa residents in many occasions. The team was constituted at the height of the floods disasters that hit Mombasa county during the last rainy season. Its sole mandate was to make sure that all arms and machinery of Mombasa county that deal with disasters are ready and well prepared 24/7 to deal and contain any disaster that occurs in a timely fashion. Let me put the objective of this team down here as outline by the governor; · To identify disaster in the county, evolve strategies for the county, integrate a national strategic plan, harmonies Disaster Management for all disaster and provides for co-ordination of all Disaster Management related activities. · To promote continuous stakeholder consultations with relevant line Ministries, to enhance co-ordination of interventions. · To promote partnership with stakeholders of the County, Regional and National level for improved action. · To promote mass education and functional literacy in environment, Disaster Management and Climate Change, in collaboration with the Ministry in charge of formal education. · To promote mass sensitization and awareness creation on Disaster Management and Climate Change for the general public. · To promote and stress the urgent need for sustainable mainstreaming of Disaster Management and Climate Change into Development Planning and Management. · To encourage promotion, domestication and implementation of Kenya’s ratified international, regional and county agreements, Conventions and Treaties, which relate to Disaster Management. Above are the objectives, and we have seen non of the above objectives being achieved so far. After the team was formed, CANON towers , went ablaze, failure of the team to respond quickly caused the towers being engulfed in the blaze, from a very small fire. A witness at the scene was quoted saying “If these people would have responded in time we would have avoided the situation getting out of control. But they came later when it was difficult to contain it,” said Katana Nzao who owns an office in the building. In fact the chairman of the current disaster team, Nahid Musa, went further and blamed building owners for blocking water hydrants. One of the objectives of this team is to identify disasters as mentioned above. Nahid Musa should not be quick in blaming building owners, his team has been given the above mandate, and it was his responsibility for his team to make regular inspections in buildings , industries , etc. to make sure they are safety compliant. Sitting in your air conditioned offices WONT help you IDENTIFY DISASTERS Another disaster occurred in LIKONI, where nine houses were burned to ashes and residents properties completely destroyed. In this disaster, it turned out that the fire engine developed mechanical problems, after arriving at the scene. Again failure of the disaster team to achieve its objectives as mentioned above. The engines are supposed to be operational and ready 24/7. Another fire incident occurred, when saint Augustine preparatory school went ablaze. Again, there was failure in the below simple areas; 1. A lot of people did not have the hotline numbers of the disaster management team - Failure of the team in mass education to the Mombasa residents on how they can be reached during disasters, NO billboards or advertisements have been done on this. 2. The fire fighters did not know the location of the school - Failure of the team to provide proper training to the staff under its mandate. 3. Fire engine arrived and it had NO water to put off the fire - Failure of the team to make sure we are 24/7 prepared. SOLUTION Mombasa county government watch (MCGW) calls for the below recommendations; 1. Current disaster management team to be disband immediately, due to their failures to achieve their objectives. 2. Disaster management teams at a constituency level to be formed, with people in these teams to be from their individual constituencies and from different Mitaaas, offices established in each constituency. a) Kisauni disaster management team b) Likoni disaster management team c) Mvita disaster management team d) Nyali disaster management team e) Jomvu disaster management team f) Changamwe disaster management team 3. Fire stations to be set up in each constituency, with at least one fire engine and one ambulance fully equipped and ready. 4. ONE Head of these constituency disaster teams, TO BE APPOINTED and should be a professional in disaster management and will be reporting directly to the governor. The above is the ONLY solution to deal with disaster EFFECTIVELY and on a timely manner, instead of us wasting taxpayers money on a useless COUNTY DISASTER MANAGEMENT TEAM. Kind Regards, MCGW
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 04:06:43 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015