Turkana County will soon have a world-class disaster response hub to serve the local areas and international neighbours of Uganda and South Sudan.
The groundbreaking plan was revealed during a high-level meeting between the County Government and Kenya Red Cross Society.
Deputy Governor Dr. John Erus expressed confidence in the hub’s capacity to improve emergency preparedness and provide information for decision-making on disaster response programming moving forward.
“We can confirm that the ten acres of land donated by the County Government to the Kenya Red Cross Society will host the advanced centre,” DG Erus said.
While noting that Turkana’s long history of recurrent disasters makes the county a strategic location for such an investment, DG Erus acknowledged that climate change challenges were making the disaster situation worse every passing day.
Kenya Red Cross Programme’s Deputy Secretary General Joe Mbalu said that the hub would bring the number of existing hubs to eleven, as ten were already up and functional in other regions.
“Once completed, this hub will be unique. Designed to serve all areas of Turkana, including the hard-to-reach areas, the hub will also serve as an international resource, therefore limiting time wastage in responding to disasters in neighbouring Uganda and South Sudan,” Mbalu said.
Issues including the impact of funding cuts on service delivery, the ongoing joint resource mobilisations for construction of a Sh6 billion dam across River Tarach for enhanced water supply, host-refugee integration support, deployment of drone technology to assess damage caused by backflow of water bodies and the entry of the Danish Red Cross as new partners were discussed.
County Secretary Dr Richard Ekai, Deputy County Secretaries Dr. Albert Gamoe (Cabinet Affairs) and Peter Nyang’a (Administration), CECM for Health and Sanitation Dr. Epem Joseph Esekon and the Deputy Director for Disaster Risk Management Moses Nawoton were present.
By Peter Gitonga
