Nairobi governor Mike Sonko with President Uhuru Kenyatta. [Photo/facebook/mike Sonko]
Fire safety and emergency management are critical for a densely populated City like Nairobi which is made up of commercial, industrial and residential premises.
The 26 firefighting engines we are launching today will go a long way in curbing fire situations that have been witnessed in the recent past resulting in serious destruction of business premises, loss of lives and properties.
Today’s launch of fire trucks will put to rest concerns that the previous County Government had failed to acquire firefighting equipment despite numerous fire tragedies in Nairobi.
In order to ensure that all Nairobi City County residents benefit from these fire engines, each Sub-County shall be allocated one fire engine while Gikomba Market will be allocated 2 fire engines on standby 24- Hours a day.
Our partnership with Somati Vehicles NV begun in 2009. However, the previous administration failed to implement the project.
Today we have a masterplan for Nairobi City County to bring the fire fighting force to an acceptable level. We shall construct and equip fire sub-stations with vehicles and equipment to make them effective in firefighting.
In addition, my administration will install water points and water tanks across the county to be used during fire outbreaks. We shall also put in place measures to ensure the employees are trained on modern firefighting techniques.
In the meantime, 300 young, energetic and vibrant firefighters will be competitively recruited to replace some of our staff who are due for retirement by the end of this year.
It is important to mention that, in line with my commitment to improve service delivery and our capacity to respond to emergencies, we shall advertise recruitment of 1,000 Traffic Marshalls to manage traffic flow within CBD and in addition 200 cleaners shall also be recruited.
My administration is working on improvements on garbage collection. With most contracts expiring by end of October, I wish to warn the cartels that only guanine companies shall be contracted in accordance with the Public Procurement Laws.
Further, I am pleased to announce that the County Government has received Sh1.5 billion package for our staff who are due for retirement by end of this year and those willing to take early retirement shall be handsomely paid and due process shall be followed. Let us not politicize this important exercise.
We shall soon launch ambulances for each and every Sub-County and plans are also underway to construct hospitals in all the wards within Nairobi City County.
However, fire safety and emergency management cannot be effective without the support of our stakeholders and the general public. Let us support our firefighting department and promote fire prevention and emergency preparedness to make Nairobi safe and secure.
In conclusion, I wish to assure the business community and the good people of Nairobi that our firefighting department is now vibrant, ready and up to the task and that there shall be no more losses as a result of fire breakouts.
Satatement by Mike Sonko