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DISASTER MANAGEMENT AND NATIONAL POLICY
The country of Kenya has been stricken by various disasters ,Kenya’s disaster profile is dominated by droughts, fire, floods, terrorism,technological accidents, diseases and epidemics that disrupt people’s livelihoods, destroy the infrastructure, divert planned use of resources, interrupt economic activities and retard development. The Kenya government through the Ministry of State for Special Programmes has developed National Policy for Disaster Management in Kenya and National Disaster Response Plan to guide in the disaster risk reduction. The history of disasters in Kenya has been collected to assist in predicting and planning for the future occurrences. The historical document has covered the period of disasters occurrence, areas covered, the kind of disaster and the estimated causalities. FOREST FIRES UPDATE AS AT 1530 HOURS 27TH MARCH 2009
This report covers fires that date back to early February 2009. We have since then had serious fire outbreaks in many forests all over the country. This state is attributed to prolonged drought conditions, heavy fuel loads in the forests and inaccessibility of the forests.The fires increased in the early days of the month of March, within the Mau complex, Mt. Kenya ecosystem, Aberdare Area and the response has been gaining grounds, so far the predicted fire behavior has not been good at all, as long as the rains continued to delay.The continuing fires are in Nakuru, Koibatek, Lariak, Meru south in Chogoria and the Kipipiri forest areas. Most of the fires in Kipipiri have been put off except 2 fires. The district forest officers are mopping up the fires and monitoring the situation.As of today 30th March 2009, most of the forest stations have reported that the ragging fires had been put off over the weekend by the showers that were there in most parts of the country. NAIROBI, 2ND APRIL 2009
THE NAKUMATT AND MOLO FIRE TRAGEDY
The Nakumatt Supermarket fire broke out at 2.45pm on 28th January 2009. The cause of the fire is yet to be established but it is alleged to have been started by an electric power surge.
The Molo fire broke out on 31st January 2009 at 6.45 at a remote area known as Sachangw’ani, 3 KM from Salgaa trading centre along Nakuru-Eldoret highway. It involved a Mercedes Benz truck Reg. No.KAY 030F that was carrying 50,000 litres of petrol from Kenya Pipeline Nakuru depot to Juba, Southern Sudan. The cause of the fire is not yet established but it is alleged that an irate person who had been denied access to siphon oil from the fallen tanker ignited the fire but himself was the first person to perish on the spot.
The effect of the two fires was too enormous in terms of human causalities, loss of lives and property and in testing the effectiveness of the Kenyan response systems. The effects of the fire could therefore not be ignored. All over a sudden, everyone realized how vulnerable they were and several interventions followed in succession of one another, which included establishment of the Nakumatt/Molo fire Victims Fund and its Management Committee and calls politicians and leaders for having in place a Disaster Management Policy and its Operational Plan.
RESPONSE
When the fires broke out, the responses were timely – with all major response agencies taking part. For the Nakumatt fire, the Nairobi Fire Fighters were on the scene in 15 minutes while for Molo fire the General Service Unit personnel were on the scene even before the fire started. What followed is that these teams were ill equipped and had to seek help from other response agencies, both private and public, who either arrived too late, were equally ill equipped or were not well coordinated to effectively prevent the full cycle of the raging fires. By the time the fires had been contained, 29 people were confirmed dead and one survivor recorded in the Nakumatt fire tragedy and 373 persons recorded as victims in the Molo fire tragedy which included 130 who died on the spot and 243 who were hospitalized as either in-patients or out-patients in various hospitals in Molo and Nakuru. A significant number of the victims were airlifted to Nairobi Hospitals the same day. (See more statistics below).
On 6th February 2009, His Excellency the President, Hon. Mwai Kibaki established a Fund, ‘The Nakumatt/Molo Fire Victims Fund’ and its Fund Raising and Management Committee through Kenya Zagette Notice No. 1171. The objective and purpose of establishing the Fund was to provide (a) assistance in payment of medical bills; and (b) associated humanitarian assistance, to the victims of both tragedies. The Fund consists of donations by leaders, the private sector, the public service, the civil society, development partners, members of the public and other well wishers.
The Gazetted Fund Raising and Management Committee for the Fund comprise of
(i) Naushad Merali – (chairman),
(ii) Peter Kahara Munga,
(iii) Martin Oduor-Otieno
(iv) Bethwel kiplagat; and
(v) Eddah Lisigi
The Committee is based in the Ministry of State for Special Programmes.
After its initial meetings the Committee co-opted other sub-Committee members to represent special interests. These include:-
(i) Daud A. Mohamed – Permanent Secretary, Ministry of State for Special Programmes
(ii) Abbas Gullet - Director, Kenya Red Cross
(iii) Dr. Francis Kimani - Director, Medical Services
(iv) Steve Smith - Chairman, Private Sector Alliance
(v) Joseph N. Macharia - Was appointed as Secretaries of the Committee
THE COMMITTEES TASK AND ACCOMPLISHEMENT
The Committee’s initial work was to establish the facts relating to the fires, and on 14th and 15th February 2009 it held its first meeting, visited all hospitals and the scene of the fire; and held discussions with patients, doctors, volunteers and Officials from Provincial Administrations and Internal Security. These interactions enabled the Committee to learn the status of the patients, the difficulties being faced in their treatments and to get vital relevant information.
The Committee next step was to fund raise for the victims as no budget had been set aside by the Government for the victims. On 19th February 2009, a fund raising ceremony presided by His Excellency the President raised Kshs. 80,700,000 on the spot with pledges coming in later. 80 percent of the amounts were raised by Public Servants led by His Excellency the president while the rest came from private sector. Motivated by the overwhelming generosity of the well-wisher, the Committee established other machineries to raise more money and Kshs. 111.4 million had been raised as at 2nd April, 2009. Donations in kind received from various donors in terms of Medical supplies, food and food items, and volunteer services were worth approximately Kshs. 20 million.
The Committee then decided to pay hospital bills and provide other humanitarian assistance. The Committee on 4th March 2009 paid Kshs. 19,750,269.65 to eight hospitals as follows:-
(1) The Mater Hospital Kshs. 9.396,684.95
(2) The Aga Khan Hospital Kshs. 5,416,338.20
(3) The Nairobi Hospital Kshs. 3,742,218.50
(4) War Memorial Kshs. 745,210.00
(5) St. Joseph Nursing Home Kshs. 203,100.00
(6) Valley Hospital Limited Kshs. 144,638.00
(7) Lee Funeral Home Kshs. 65, 000.00
(8) St. Mary Mission Hospital Kshs. 37,080.00
Total Kshs. 19,750,269.65
On 18th Mrach 2009 an additional Kshs. 80,490 was paid to the following two hospitals:
(1) Lee Funeral Home Kshs. 27,990.00
(2) St. Mary Mission Hospital Kshs. 52,500.00
Total Kshs. 80,490.00
As may be noted, no Public Hospital bill had been paid by 2nd April 2009 because the Committee had not received a comprehensive breakdown of the medical Bills and the medical supplies donated to them to enable the Committee makes a decision. By the time of preparing this brief, the bills were being sorted out for presentation to the Committee.
The Committee also has resolved to provide humanitarian assistance of Kshs. 50,000 to the victims to assist in burial or other humanitarian needs. However, it is only the next of kin of dead victims will receive the money. Survivors who were hospitalized for more than 15 days or more will also be paid Kshs. 50,000 each. Already 6 people have been paid a total of Kshs. 300,000 and another 130 persons have been cleared to receive the payment. The remaining 164 persons who qualify for payment are being vetted before receiving the payment. In total, about 300 people will each be paid Kshs. 50,000 humanitarian assistance.
Regarding the Nakumatt fire Victims, Nakumatt Holdings Limited is meeting all the bills which include payments for the DNA tests and provision of humanitarian assistance of Kshs. 100,000 for every victim that died. The amounts are collected by verified next of kins of the deceased. The Committee is merely facilitating the process to ensure the money gets to the victims.
The Committee has also resolved to construct a memorial site where the accident took place and 78 people put to rest in a mass grave. In addition, the Committee has agreed to set aside some funds to construct a Burns Unit at the Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital.
The Statistics
1. Molo Fire Tragedy 373 people were affected out of whom:-
(i) 31 are still Hospitalized - 6 in Kenyatta National Hospital and 25 in Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital
(ii) 72 died in various hospitals where they were admitted
(iii) 68 had been admitted in various hospitals but have since been discharged
(iv) 72 had minor injuries and were treated and discharged the same day
(v) 130 were badly burned some beyond recognition. Out of these 78 were buried in mass burial at Shachangw’ani, 42 were identified and claimed, and 10 were identified but unclaimed.
It is out of these numbers that 300 beneficiaries will be identified to be provided humanitarian assistance. 2. Nakumatt Fire Tragedy
(a) 29 people died, out of whom 18 have been identified through DNA and 11 are yet to be identified through second round of DNA testing.
(b) Initially it was reported that there were no survivors in the tragedy but later reports show that two people survived- one is still in Kenyatta Hospital and the other was treated at the Nairobi West Hospital and discharged but is still getting treatments.
The Committee is still in operation and more details will be provided in our next brief.
The following are various links on the tragedy:-
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Disaster Risk Reduction 
