Sensitisation and capacity building for Nairobi slums residents have played a significant role in reducing the impact of disasters like fires.
The Kenya Red Cross Nairobi branch has said more than 30 cases of fires have been reported in Nairobi’s informal settlements this year.
The KRC has attributed most fire outbreaks in the slums to arson, bad electrical wiring, domestic violence and unsupervised stoves.
“It is challenging to respond promptly to fires or other crises in the majority of Nairobi’s slums due to the poor access routes,” it said on its Twitter.
“Nairobi is frequently struck by strange flames which primarily occur in the slums and destroy commercial buildings and private homes occasionally resulting in fatalities and injuries.”
The KRC has been training disaster response teams in First Aid, disaster management and firefighting among many others.
The sensitisation and capacity building for the community members under the urban resilience project has seen the cases of fires decrease by 65 per cent.
This comes as a fire broke out in Mukuru slums on Tuesday destroying property of unknown value.
Data released by Tushinde Children’s Trust in May last year showed that 892 families had been victims of mysterious fires recorded from January 2021 to May 18, 2022, in Nairobi.
The report on fires in Mathare and Kiambiu informal settlements revealed that the two slums experienced fire incidents seven out of 12 months during that period with 502 families having been affected.
Nairobi suffers frequent mysterious fires, especially in the slums and markets, which destroy property worth millions of shillings.
Sometimes the fires lead to injuries or even deaths.
Slums suffer from poor road networks and lack of accessibility making it difficult to respond promptly to fires, health emergencies and other problems.
