Lodwar- 7th July 2025 (Public Communication and Media Relations)
Turkana will soon have a world class disaster response hub to serve the local areas and, international neighbors of Uganda and South Sudan.
The groundbreaking plan was revealed on Monday, during a high-level meeting between County Government and Kenya Red Cross Society.
Deputy Governor, Dr John Erus expressed confidence in the hub’s capacity to improve emergency preparedness and provide information for decision making on disaster response programming moving forward.
“We can confirm that the ten Acres land donated by the County Government to Kenya Red Cross Society will host the advanced center,’ DG Erus said.
Adding that Turkana’s long history of recurrent disasters makes the county a strategic location for such an investment, DG Erus called acknowledged that climate change challenges are making the disaster situation worse every passing day.
Kenya Red Cross Program’s Deputy Secretary General in charge of Program Joe Mbalu said that the hub will bring the number of existing hubs to eleven as ten were already up and functional in other regions.
“Once completed, this hub will be unique. Designed to serve all areas of Turkana including the hard-to-reach areas, the hub will also serve as an international resource therefore limiting time wastage in responding to disasters in the neighbouring Uganda and South Sudan,’ Joe Mbalu said.
Issues including the impact of funding cuts on service delivery, the ongoing join resource mobilizations for construction of a Kshs 6 billion dam across River Tarach for enhanced water supply, host-refugee integration support, deployment of drone technology to assess damage caused by backflow of water bodies and the entry of the Danish Red Cross as new partners were discussed.
County Secretary Dr Richard Ekai, Deputy County Secretaries Dr Albert Gamoe (Cabinet Affairs) and Peter Nyang’a (Administration), CECM for Health and Sanitation Dr Epem Joseph Esekon and the Deputy Director for Disaster Risk Management Moses Nawoton were present.
