- Red Cross Secretary General Idris said there were so many lessons learnt from the Shakahola massacre which will assist in planning for such tragedies in future.
- Red Cross came to Shakahola to take stock of their work around the tragedy and the response of their team.
Image: FILE
The Kenya Red Cross Society(KRCS) is planning to review its level of preparedness in responding to incident of mass casualties.
The moves comes in as a precautionary measure after the Shakahola massacre that left more than 426 followers of controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie dead.
Red Cross Secretary General Ahmed Idris said there were so many lessons learnt from the Shakahola massacre which will assist in planning for similar tragedies in future.
Idris spoke in Malindi on Thursday when he toured the Malindi Subcounty Hospital Mortuary where 425 bodies exhumed from the shallow graves in Shakahola are preserved in a temporary container donated by the KRCS.
He later met with volunteers who took part in the search, rescue, exhumation and the general operation at the Ocean beach resort.
The Secretary general said he came with the leadership of KRCS to take stock of their work around the Shakahola tragedy and the response of their team.
“Mass casualties incidents like this are an opportunity to reflect on our capacity as a nation, institution to deal with such tragedies, we are learning as a nation, we are learning as an institution,” he said.
“We have spent time with the volunteers to understand their experience, the needs of the communities and we are leaving here this evening with a better understanding of what we need to plan ahead as an institution to support the communities who come out of this particular tragedy."
The secretary general said as an institution they are committed to support the communities and work with the government as auxiliaries to invest further in response and structures for tragedies.
He said they are they are now prepared in dead bodies management and family tracing.
“And finally, as government gives the directives with the final plans for support on burials, we just want to make commitment as an institution that we will be working with the government through the remaining phases of the response whatever the direction it will take and we are honoured as an institution to play the critical role,” he said.
Idris said normal morgues in the area are not prepared to handle such tragedy but they gave out a temporary morgue to help in storing the bodies.
He said they will be expanding the temporary storage facility for the Shakahola tragedy bodies in the few coming days to create space that allows for identification of bodies.