A series of earth tremors that caused panic in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, has raised concerns over the country's ability to respond to sudden major disasters.

Major Stephen Sane, the acting head of Kenya's National Disaster Operations Centre, said Kenya lacked basic rescue equipment and the emergency medical services staff needed in the event of a serious earthquake.

His unit was created in 1998 after devastating floods, caused by the El Niño weather pattern, wreaked havoc on Kenya's infrastructure.

"Our disaster preparedness appears to be whimsical. It has not been taken seriously at the policy level," Sane told IRIN, adding that the country also lacked an emergency medical service and has to depend on the Red Cross.

According to Jeanine Cooper, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA-Kenya), Kenya is “ill-prepared” to respond to sudden catastrophes such as earthquakes or a terrorist attack.

She commended the country's preparedness and early warning systems for drought, but said flood readiness “left a lot to be desired” and could benefit from risk mapping initiatives.

Lessons from history

Sane said little has been learned from the experiences of the American embassy bombing in Nairobi in 1998. The explosion caused an adjacent four-storey building to collapse, burying hundreds of people. The Kenyan government had to ask for help from foreign rescue teams. Most impressive, Sane said, were an Israeli team who arrived in Nairobi 24 hours after the blast and managed to save a number of people. The death toll from the attack was 213.

"The Israelis brought the realisation of the need for specialised training in search and rescue," said Sane. A Kenyan rescue unit has since been trained in Israel, but the government does not have the equipment to look for bodies and survivors buried under rubble.

When a building under construction in Nairobi collapsed in 2006, burying dozens of workers alive, Kenya had to once again seek Israeli help.

Sane said a disaster management policy paper, which would pave the way for the formulation of legislation on the issue, has been awaiting Cabinet approval since 1999. "We should be more proactive," he said.

Building regulations

A series of earthquakes and tremors in July 2007 - whose epicentres were in Tanzania, but were felt strongly in Nairobi - prompted the Architectural Association of Kenya to express concerns over the lack of building law enforcement in the country.

The association's chairman Gideon Mulyungi estimated that 90 percent of buildings outside Nairobi's city centre were not constructed by professionals.

"We could have a major disaster on our hands in the event of a powerful earthquake," he said. "We have been pushing the government to audit all buildings in Kenya to establish their safety."

The ministries of Public Works and Local Government confirmed that the audit was under way.

Despite the apparent slow progress in adopting national disaster response mechanisms, it has been recognised that a regional approach to the issue could strengthen the state's capacity.

An inter-governmental initiative, Golden Spear, supported in part by the US military, aims to strengthen regional capacity in disaster response and preparedness.

Egypt, Djibouti and Rwanda have already ratified an agreement, establishing the Golden Spear initiative. Kenya and Uganda are expected to follow suit in late August, according to Frank Sabwa, finance officer at the Disaster Management Centre of Excellence in Nairobi.

Other Golden Spear member states are Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Seychelles and Tanzania. Eritrea and Ethiopia initially expressed willingness to join the initiative, but have not yet signed the memorandum of agreement.

Sabwa said the ratified Golden Spear agreement would be passed on to the UN and the African Union to raise funding. Member states would also be able to set aside funding from their own national budgets.

"The initiative is expected to raise early warning capacities within acceptable levels and become an operational hub for information sharing and disaster response," said Sabwa.