Kenya Govt urged to avert El Nino disaster

Five people die of hunger in Turkana District each day as drought continues to ravage parts of northern Kenya. To avoid more deaths from the expected El Niño rains, the Red Cross on Wednesday called on the Kenyan Government to put in place disaster prevention measures.

Red Cross special programmes manager Abdishakur Othowa said the government could save a great deal of resources if it invested in disaster prevention rather than waiting to react when disasters happen.

“For every $1 (Sh75) you use on disaster risk reduction, you save $5 (Sh375), which you would have used in addressing the impact of a disaster when it occurs,” he said. He was speaking in Nairobi during the International Day for Disaster Reduction on Wednesday.

According to the National Disaster Operation Centre, more than 6,000 people have died in Kenya in the last three years as a result of both natural and human-induced disasters. Most of these deaths occurred as a result of the 2008 post-election violence, the prolonged drought in parts of the country, and the Sachang’wan and Nakumatt fire tragedies.

Special Programmes minister Naomi Shabaan told the media on the sidelines of the function that the government was yet to evacuate residents of flood-prone areas to higher grounds because “no one would move without first seeing the rains”.

But plans were complete, with food, drugs and other basic necessities being delivered to the high risk areas, she added.

Resettlement

The day was also marked at a time the government was grappling with the compensation and resettlement of internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Dr Shabaan said the government had closed all the original IDP camps. Her ministry had acquired half a billion shillings to compensate IDPs living with their relatives, she said, adding that the programme would start soon.

Delivering a message from UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, Mr Pedro Basabe of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction asked the government to strengthen health centres and equip them in readiness for any disaster.