Looking at Kenya’s history on unexpected disasters or calamities, one notices a trend that has refused to go away.
We have never learnt from past mistakes. Our agencies, mostly public, will rush to the scene of calamities, led mostly by political leaders, give a way forward in what needs to be done and, a few months after the incident, it is back to business as usual.
Let’s go back to 1998, when Al-Qaeda brought hell on earth to Nairobi by bombing the American Embassy, in the process destroying the Ufundi Co-operative House.
More Kenyans would have been buried alive in the rubble had the Israelis not come to our rescue.
Many thought we had learnt a lesson and emulate the Israelis or try to learn from them about disaster preparedness and rescue missions. We never did.
A house under construction on Ronald Ngala Street came tumbling a few years later, burying alive the workers at the site.
Our emergency responders, including the armed forces, fumbled with rescue efforts until the Israelis were — once again — called in days later to spearhead the mission and save lives.
It was the same story with the Al-Shabaab attacks on Garissa University and Westgate and many other incidents where lives could be saved but were not.
It is only in the DusitD2 incident that Kenyans saw quick and coordinated response. Although 20-plus Kenyans and some foreigners were killed by the terrorists, the quick response by local rescue teams was appreciated by Kenyans.
Many other cases, however, prove that Kenya is still far from perfect in reacting to incidents where human life is at threat.
Kenyans from all walks of life have been saddened by the slowness by the authorities to retrieve the bodies of a woman and her four-year-old daughter whose car slid from the ferry and sank in the Indian Ocean.
Although much has been said about the shoddy and unprofessional manner the agencies have handled the matter, the buck stops at the door of the Kenya Ferry Services’ leadership.
All Kenyans hear from the authorities is a blame game among government agencies.
The government spokesman is engaging Kenyans with non-issues while the vehicle and the bodies are yet to be sighted and retrieved.
Once again, the Transport minister has said they might involve a South African company in the mission.
All this is happening when the Kenya Navy, with all the expertise and resources available and with its main barracks a stone’s throw away, are yet to be involved.
Where do we go wrong? Is it that we cannot set up structures to deal with disasters and rapid response? Is it not time the governments, both county and national, became serious and established departments besides firefighters and ambulances, to entirely train and equip themselves for such occurrences?
It seems we never learnt from the Mtongwe ferry disaster in 1994 and the terrorist attacks that have rocked our nation.
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