'Sound the alarm: East Africa is defenceless'

The failure by the East African Community governments to put in place a comprehensive disaster preparedness policy means its response to high-risk events such as bombings, cave-ins, droughts, floods, epidemics and major accidents tends to be slow, poorly co-ordinated and unnecessarily expensive, says the EastAfrican.

"No single state has the capacity to individually deal with all disasters as they arise. The five countries need to devote more financial and human resources to disaster management," said Odhiambo Makoloo, the director of the Institute for Law and Environmental Governance.