The Rapid Response team of the Mandera county government is this year's winner of the First Aid competition in the country.
The competition was held on Saturday at Boma Hotel, the headquarter of Kenya Red Cross, as part of celebrations to mark the World First Aid Day.
Mandera represented north-eastern region. The win was the culmination of the training started in March by the county government in partnership with KRC and the National Police Service. The participants were government institutions, corporate entities, colleges and primary and secondary schools.
Elimu Bora Primary School emerged the winner in the primary school category.
The two-day training in March was used to pick the team to represent the county during the national First Aid Training programme.
The county’s Rapid Response Team under the department of Devolved Units and Enforcement Services and led by chief officer Yussuf Dido was the winner.
The head of the Ministry Ahmed Sheikh commended the team that represented the region for their victory saying and urged them to ‘keep the momentum.
“We are very happy to have represented our region so well. We are going back home knowing that when it comes to matters First Aid, we are the best and can attend to emergencies whenever called to do so,” Sheikh said.
He noted that accidents can happen anytime and anywhere. "Everybody needs to have basic skills on First Aid," he said.
Dido said basic knowledge of First Aid is crucial in a county that borders Somalia, a country with a high presence of life-threatening al Shabaab militants.
Last Tuesday, five soldiers and police anti-stock theft unit officers were killed when their armoured vehicles were hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in Elwak.
Twenty others were injured during the incident.
Their two armoured vehicles and a lorry were hit by a rocket fired by the militants between Frhama and Elram.
