Kenya ramps up support for DRR legislation
NAIROBI, 20 August 2015 – The Government of Kenya and its partners are engaging to create an enabling environment for implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, a 15-year global plan to curb deaths and economic losses caused by natural and man-made hazards.
This week, Kenya’s Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government hosted a meeting to sensitize top civil servants from across the country’s administration about the importance of disaster risk management policy at the highest level. The ministry is at the helm of Kenya’s efforts to reduce risk.
“The range of threats we see cut across all government ministries,” said Ambassador Dr. Monica Juma, its principal secretary. In the Kenyan system, a principal secretary is the key civil servant in a ministry, one notch down from a minister.
The Sendai Framework was adopted in March at the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction. Dr. Juma highlighted the agreement’s four priorities -- understanding disaster risk, strengthening disaster risk governance, investing in disaster risk reduction and enhancing disaster preparedness.
She also underlined Kenya’s commitment to implementing the framework, demonstrated by the fact that President Uhuru Kenyatta led his delegation World Conference in the Japanese city of Sendai.
Kenya suffered losses estimated at US $12.1 billion after the prolonged droughts in the Horn of Africa region from 2008 to 2011. Its economic growth slowed to an annual average of 2.8 percent over that period.
According to Kenya’s action plan submitted for December’s UN climate conference in Paris, droughts and floods alone cause economic losses estimated at 3.0 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
Participants at the meeting – also including Government officials, members of parliament, and UN and academic sector representatives -- highlighted the role of early warning systems such as timely weather forecasts and advocacy on disaster risks as key to enabling communities and other stakeholders understand risks and boost preparedness.
There was a call for the enactment of Kenya’s Disaster Risk Management Bill which has stalled for over a decade. The lack of a legal framework means that a central disaster management coordination body cannot be operationalized with the necessary mandate and resources.
At present, various institutions housed in different ministries are tasked with disaster risk management, including the National Disaster Operation Centre, the National Disaster Management Unit, the National Drought Management Agency and the Directorate of Special Programmes.
“We hope that the policy document which has been prepared and waiting Cabinet approval will get approved soon and later be presented to Parliament for debate,” said Dr. Juma.
Hon. Wilbur Ottichilo, co-chair of Kenya’s Parliamentary Caucus on Disaster Risk Reduction, reassured participants of support from the legislature. “Parliament is well sensitized. We need the ministry to bring forth the policy, and our Caucus will fast-track it.”
The meeting also proposed that ministries should provide budgetary support for disaster risk reduction.
“Each ministry should have a disaster risk management cell or sub-department and adequate resources allocated to it. There is a whole range of investments that we can dedicate to this priority area,” said Dr. Juma.
The meeting was among a series held in Kenya and in the rest of East Africa since the adoption of the Sendai Framework. In June, Kenya’s National Action Plan for 2015 to 2018 was proposed to strengthen the national platform on disaster risk reduction. An East African Disaster Risk Reduction Parliamentarian Platform was established the same month.
The Sendai Framework aims at the substantial reduction of disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods and health and in the economic, physical, social, cultural and environmental assets of persons, businesses, communities and countries from 2015 to 2030.