Speaker recalls MCAs over county’s poor state of disaster management

Recently, 10 households in Kwa Michael estate, located 2km from Kericho town, were left homeless after a fire gutted down a residential block. [File, Standard]

Members of the County Assembly have been recalled from recess to debate a series of fire-related disasters in and around Kericho town.

In the latest incident, almost 10 households in Kwa Michael estate, located 2km from Kericho town, were left homeless after a fire gutted down a residential block over the weekend.

“The county assembly is on recess until September 11 but I have convened a special sitting this Thursday to discuss and take necessary action on the lack of fire preparedness and disaster management,” said Speaker Dominic Rono.

The county government's fire department has been unable to speedily extinguish the fires after the main engine, which cost Sh60 million, broke down and is yet to be repaired.

Kapkugerwet MCA Collins Biegon expressed concern that even a 200-litre capacity fire engine inherited from the defunct Kericho Municipal Council was of no help.

Carpentry workshop

“Barely a month after a carpentry workshop located near the Kenya Industrial Estates area was destroyed, another fire occurred in Kwa Michael. The saddest thing in all these incidents is that even the county’s small fire engine did not make it to the scenes, which are less than a 10-minute drive from the central business district,” he said.

Mr Biegon added that the county assembly had done its part by passing a motion to have a fire station built and a fire engine bought for every sub-county, but the county government was yet to take action.

“Our people continue to suffer because someone somewhere is sleeping on the job. In other jurisdictions, the people heading such departments would have resigned by now,” he said.

Residents have been relying on the James Finlay Tea Company’s fire engine and their own devices to put out fires.