Raila Bemoans Chaos In Govt Over Handling Of Floods Disaster

Azimio la Umoja leader, Raila Odinga has criticised the Kenya Kwanza government for creating confusion in terms of responding to the ongoing flood situation in the country.

In a statement on Tuesday, April 30, the former Prime Minister revealed that the floods, though unprecedented in many ways, have exposed the country's inability to properly plan particularly for weather and climate-change-driven disasters and the underinvestment in infrastructure and social welfare across the country.

He therefore called for accountability and a reorganisation of the country's priorities, appealing to the government to ensure that the most urgent needs of low-income people across the country get priority attention and that their voices are heard as the recovery efforts continue.

"For the days ahead and as the rains continue, we ask the government to be proactive, clear the confusion being witnessed, end duplication and unnecessary competition within its ranks and create clarity over roles and responsibilities in the response and incident management system," he urged.

Raila further called on the government to perfect its communication channels with all who have responsibilities in the unfolding situation to enable agencies and the two levels of government to deliver better, faster and more efficient services.

The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader appeared to respond to instances of delayed communication by the government to members of the public, most prominently one which postponed the reopening of all primary and secondary schools by a week announced at 1 am on the same day schools were scheduled to resume for the second term on Monday, April 29.

"The devastation has made clear that as a nation, we must confront the emergency of our failure to learn. The government has been talking big on climate change, yet when the menace comes in full force, we have been caught unprepared," he added.

"Despite the fact that the Meteorological Department had accurately predicted the coming heavy rains and storms, there were no advance contingency plans. We have therefore been reduced to planning, searching and rescuing at the same time."

Raila promised that as a formation, the Azimio coalition would help foster debate on this matter in the days and months ahead and force the country to confront failure to learn as a national emergency and scourge.

In a kind gesture, Raila announced that the coalition's leaders were holding fundraiser events to support victims affected by the floods.