Safety Intervention Role Played by Various Entities in Disaster Risk Reduction in Eldoret Municipality Industries, Kenya

Abstract

Work place disasters have been a major global concern. In Kenya, media reports and literature sources indicate that the government has poor safety standards and inadequate disaster preparedness. Disruption of business activities as a result of disasters can be attributed to inadequate attention to disaster risk prevention and poor management by organizations as an economic and business issue. A much closer interaction between businesses and government as well as related organizational bodies is needed to ensure appropriate risk reduction strategies and adequate measures for implementation. This paper thus evaluates the safety intervention role played by various entities and organizations in reducing the Disaster risks. Eldoret Municipality in Kenya is the area of focus given that it is one of the towns with the biggest manufacturing industries in Kenya. The authors carried out a survey of large, middle and small scale factories in Eldoret. Purposive sampling was used to select the industries and simple random sampling to select the study units which included Managerial staff and operational workers as well as labor officers in the Ministry of labor (Public Health Officers), fire brigade officers, Kenya National Environment Management Authority (KNEMA) and the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) Regional officials. Interviews and questionnaires were used for data collection. Data was then analyzed using descriptive statistics. The study found out that there is need for a combined effort of disaster risk reduction between international agencies, national governments and the local community as well as individuals at work since each one has a role to play in ensuring safety of the workplace. The paper recommends enhancement of work-based interventions in all the organizations despite the level of production. Organizations and individuals must adhere to and be accountable to health and safety requirements of their workplace in order to reduce risks.

Key words: Disaster, Risk reduction, International agencies, Local agencies, Safety, Collaboration.