1 September 2008
editorial
Kenya, and Africa as a whole, ought to learn from the US in terms of disaster preparedness.
In anticipation of Hurricane Gustav, that was set to hit the low-lying New Orleans any time, the US government immediately ordered the evacuation of about 2 million residents, more so from hindsight.
But Kenyans have been known to grope in the dark whenever disaster strikes. Equally, there is little evidence that Kenyans learn from one disaster in order to be ready for the next similar occurrence.
Ever since the 1998 terrorist bombing in Nairobi, Kenya has suffered many disasters, both man-made and natural, but is has always been the same story of inadequate equipment and insufficient skilled personnel for manage disasters.
It is no wonder that annual occurrences, such as the Kano and Budalang'i floods, are still a headache to Kenyans despite being around for generations. But it is not that the US handled the 2005 Hurricane Katrina sufficiently either. What makes the difference is that the US Government has learnt from previous disaster and raised its level of preparedness.
The Bush administration was in 2005 accused of sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina that flooded 80 per cent of New Orleans, and was dubbed the most costly natural disaster in US history.
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