10 Mar Nairobi to unveil first disaster communication centre to support emergency response

Nairobi has announced it is set to open its first disaster communication centre to enable it respond rapidly to emergencies including fire.

The centre will be the focal point for coordinating the response to emergencies and disasters within Nairobi. The centre will become the dedicated hotspot for handling all disaster management activities.

Nairobi Governor Ann Kananu said: “The centre will be part of the ongoing Ruaraka fire station, whose function will be to coordinate disaster management.”

The creation of the fire station comes at a time when fires are happening frequently and emergency response is often called upon. The Ruaraka fire station is currently its in last phase and expected to be completed soon.

Kananu continued: “Soon we shall be commissioning the Ruaraka  fire station together with the other two which are already operational.”

The Ruaraka fire station is a county project funded by the Belgium government while Kangundo road and Waithaka fire stations, which are already complete have been funded and supported by the World Bank.

Before last year, Nairobi had only two functioning fire stations; one at Khoja and another in Industrial Area. The creation of new fire stations will increase this to six, enabling better support when emergencies occur.

Part of the ongoing strategy and developments, will include more boreholes to supply each fire station with enough water. Kananu added: “In the next financial year, my administration will allocate more funds to ensure we drill more boreholes to supply water to the stations in addition to the water hydrants.”

In 2018, only 103 out of the 4,044 hydrants in Nairobi were said to be functional with many damaged when the Thika Superhighway was being constructed. According to Kananu, many buildings which were previously  built without proper approvals have interrupted the hydrants but some are still functional.