Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has been put on the spot over the lack of a new fire station despite the county collecting over Ksh1.6 billion in fire inspection since 2013.
Even with the rampant occurrences of fires in Nairobi County, the governor is yet to come up with another station.
Despite the millions amassed in revenue from fire inspection, the county is noted to have only two functional fire stations.
Surprisings, even the county boss before him, Evans Kidero, made no effort to have one put up.
The functional two fire stations were built before independence.
One is along Tom Mboya Street, built in 1907 while the second one is at Industrial Area established in 1957.
Nairobi’s population of four million people have always been served by the two stations.
According to Kenya National Fire Brigade Association (Kenfiba) secretary general Francis Liech noted that in a day at least eight fire incidences are always reported to the fire brigade control room.
Even with the presence of numerous and deadly infernos, the county is yet to construct other statios despite the collection of Ksh1.63 billion in fire inspection revenue between July 2013 and February 2019.
Read: Sonko To Be Fined Sh500,000 By Senate For Not Answering To Kidero’s Looting Of Nairobi County
In a report presented in parliament, the City Hall’s Disaster Management and Coordination department revealed that In the 2013/2014 financial year, the department recorded Ksh144 million in annual revenue.
This increased to Ksh148 million the following financial year while in 2015/2016 financial year, Ksh162.5 million was collected.
The annual collections almost tripled in 2016/2017 financial year to Ksh433 million, Ksh436.8 million in 2017/2018 while as at March 29, 2019, the collection stood at Ksh308 million.
Speaking on the fire department service delivery, City Hall director of Fire and Rescue Services Brian Kisali divulged that the county government has 52 fire engines and 120 trained fire fighters of whom 24 will retire by next year.
Following the government’s failure to construct other stations, the World Bank funded the building of two other stations, which are currently ongoing – one along Kangundo Road and another one in Waithaka.
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