Neglect is neither accident nor disaster

Kipkoech Tanui

I do not delude President Kibaki, Prime minister Raila Odinga or you and me can stop disasters or accidents. Just like I know ten out of ten people born, including ourselves, will die, I do not fool myself police and provincial administrators can stop flooding.

They can only do so much when road accidents occur or petroleum tankers flare-up, incinerating poor souls before they are at Pearly Gates.

I would be the last person to blame Mwai Kibaki, Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka or any other pampered Government functionary for the disasters and accidents that have ruined our families, made us weep, broken our limbs and taken our loved ones to the grave.

We all know an accident as the unexpected and unpreventable and despite the human shield around our leaders, if disaster or accident knock on their doors, they will be just as helpless as you and I. The only difference is there will be helicopters, overseas trips and, at worst, flags flying at half-mast.

Our common denominator is no amount of money can buy intelligence on disasters and accidents, probably just earthquakes and tsunamis, but just to a certain degree.

If you are a digerati and have constant interaction with Wikipedia, you will recall it says: "An accident is a specific, identifiable, unexpected, unusual and unintended external action which occurs in a particular time and place, without apparent or deliberate cause but with marked effects." Oxford Dictionary defines disasters thus: "An unexpected event, such as a very bad accident, a flood or a fire, that kills a lot of people or causes a lot of damage..."

Now here is my problem; when a lorry without brake lights and reflectors is waved on by police at roadblocks at night, after crumpled notes change hands, and then a bus crashes onto it 20 kilometres away, is this an accident? I reckon, to the bus driver it could be, but the police and lorry driver must be charged with murder just like the drunk that ploughed into two young girls in Ongata Rongai last week!

Planned accidents

An accident could be when you are driving at moderate speed along Gilgil at night and out of the blue, a herd of buffaloes comes gamboling across the road. You brake and that is the last you do...

And in a flash it has happened and the rest is in God’s hands.

But you cannot convince me if you close your eyes and cross Mombasa Road, which seems to me the Police and Ministry of Transport, has licensed to kill or cull Kenyans, you will be a road accident statistic rather than a suicide case. But it will not be ‘accident’ to the one who runs over you, unless, in a flash, you jumped to the road!

If Mombasa’s rickety ferries that keep stalling sink today and 300 people are killed, we would lie to ourselves it is ‘an act of God’, ‘accident’ or ‘disaster’, and State House declares three days of national mourning.

They have has stalled so many times, drifting dangerously away from landing point it is as if God is forewarning us.

But like fatalists who believe death is ordained by fate and destiny, we just carry on.

When meteorologists warned El NiÒo rains were coming, we did not expect Kibaki, Raila or Kalonzo, or those who say ‘Yes sir’ to them every minute, to consult witchdoctors who could divert the storms to the Indian Ocean, Lake Victoria, Mau Forest and Sasumua Dam.

We expected they would sit and plan for relief operations and set up quick response teams, from the military, police and what remains of National Disaster Operations Centre. We expected someone would ask what use choppers would be if they are sent to the flooded villages without ropes, boats and special carriages with which those on trees could be hauled to safety.

To me it is criminal neglect for a government to go holidaying as Kenyans drown, only to surface five days into New Year, to scramble for Air Force helicopters to fly out of Nairobi to "assess the situation".

Meanwhile the only straw the dying can cling to are cow tails, Red Cross and World Vision tents, blankets, biscuits and mosquito nets. And when disasters happen, why do police and provincial administrators fly in like it is a crime scene, complete with guns and fatigues?

Does it require rocket science for the Government to designate an officer, say from the military, to co-ordinate rescue operations from a known command centre, day and night, or to enforce road safety rules?

What does it cost Government to issue national alerts and bulletins on the status of flooding? And just where was Dr Alfred Mutua and his cameras? Holidaying perhaps? Where did his enthusiasm go? Or when he is away, does his office stop functioning?

Disasters

Yes, we must all tell those who govern us we may not prevent disasters but we owe it to our Kenya to help the victims, intelligently and as fast as is humanely possible.

The days of waiting for Americans and Israelis to fly all the way and help us locate those still alive at bomb blast’s debris are gone but our leaders seem to be still stuck in that time warp and believe it is not their responsibility but that of the Red Cross!

Finally, when you see them, let them know negligence, shirking responsibility and hands-off approaches are not same as ‘accidents’ and ‘disasters’.

The writer is managing editor Standard, Daily Editions.

Ktanui@standardmedia.co.ke