22.0 DISASTER PREPAREDNESS AND EARLY WARNING SYSTEM

Kenya is prone to natural and man-made disasters including drought and desertification, terrorist attack, floods, tribal conflicts and land clashes, landslides, pest invasion, massive accidents e.g. drowning fires, lightening and potentially lethal earthquakes. The most critical and most recurring disasters are floods, drought, land and ethnic clashes. In order for Kenya to have a long lasting solution to disasters, there is need to develop a proactive long term disaster management strategy which should lead Kenya to a situation of permanent disaster awareness and preparedness. In order to manage disasters the DP Government will implement the following measures:

1. Develop a drought recovery system for both crop and livestock production systems and especially for the ASALs

2. Introduce studies of human behaviour in the face of disasters

3. Intensify the use of drought resistant crop and livestock varieties.

4. Develop an Early Warning System that would include the monitoring of rainfall, crop and livestock production and marketing activities.

5. Develop a conflict resolution mechanism for coping with ethnic and land clashes

6. Develop a programme for dealing with terrorism including the introduction of academic courses at all Kenyan Educational Institutions on how to cope with terrorism and other disasters.

7. Strengthen surveillance and coping mechanisms for disease outbreak and pest invasion.

8. Develop a long term sustainable programme to manage floods.

9. Establish an autonomous Disaster Preparedness Institute (DPI) to undertake research on preparedness, coping mechanisms and disaster forecasting

10. Enforce environmental laws inorder to avoid disasters

11. Develop management procedures on lightening and earthquakes responses including house building requirements

12. Disaster simulated drills should be performed regularly particularly in schools