The Disaster Preparedness & Response Department provides immediate relief to affected populations so as to save lives, protect livelihoods, and strengthen recovery from disasters and crises.
The department’s key activities are in: Emergency Operation, Tracing and Restoration of Family Links, Refugee Operations in Dadaab and Kalobeyei, Protracted Relief and Recovery Operations, as well as Disaster Management Strengthening. Disasters in Kenya have continued to result to loss of both lives and property, with grave consequences for the survival, dignity and livelihood of individuals, particularly the poor, and reversal of development gains.
Kenya’s disaster profile is dominated by both natural and human-induced disasters. They include droughts, floods, conflicts, acts of violence, road traffic crashes, building collapses, terrorism, fires, chemical accidents, diseases and epidemics that disrupt people’s livelihoods, destroy infrastructure, divert planned use of resources, interrupt economic activities and retard national development. The department, therefore, implements programmes that aim to strengthen the organizational capacity to prepare for and respond to disasters through investing in capacity building for staff and volunteers, and fostering a culture of learning to inform current and future preparedness and response.