Crises expose the unprepared. As torrential rain drenched much of the country this past week, both national and county governments were exposed for their total lack of disaster preparedness.
Despite numerous warnings from meteorologists, public officials sat on their hands. There was no system to monitor water levels and activate evacuation protocols. Instead, Kenyans were left to figure things out on their own. Dozens have so far died (condolences to the bereaved).
The government’s asinine response was vividly illustrated by the recourse to directives, instead of help for the affected. People were ordered to move to higher ground (Where? Was there going to be shelter? Food? Other necessities?). The government also threatened to jail anyone who dared to cross flooded roads on rivers (again, what if people had to rescue their family members?)
To add salt to injury, prominent public officials issued completely out-of-touch and troll-like commentary. While we have always known that Kenyan lives are not a priority for the government, it still stung to see them proverbially spit in our faces even before the dead were buried.
The national emergency caused by the flooding is a wake-up call. First, climate change is real. Moving forward, we will not be able to get away with a lack of planning for extreme weather (be it rains or heat/drought).
That means our approaches to policies and regulations must adjust – from agriculture (dams and irrigation), to health and education (air conditioning, disease control, planning for heat waves and flooding), to infrastructure and housing (weather-proofing across the board), to many other sectors.
We certainly do not have the money or capacity to make all these changes at once, but our structural orientation must be in the direction of greater climate resilience. And to get there we must start to trust competence – including among meteorologists.
Second, and more importantly, the government must start acting like it values Kenyan lives. At the end of the day, the reason we live together as a nation is to engage in collective actions for the betterment of the whole.
That raison d’être flies out of the window if at every turn, the government shows nothing but distilled contempt and disregard for Kenyan lives.
Paying attention to people is not just a cuddly dream. It impacts policy design and implementation and creates incentives among government officials to avoid the casual cruelty that is the hallmark the public sector.
The writer is a professor at Georgetown University
