Fire Brigade - First impressions

The Fire Brigade Team is consisting of Mike, Tom, Brian and Mandip. Last Friday, 28 June, the whole ConTribute Kenya team arrived in Kenya and was very warmly welcomed by Fabrizio, the owner of the Hostel in Mombasa and his friendly staff.

In the afternoon all projects were visited together with representatives from Condor who flew with us to Mombasa. The Fire Brigade Team was accompanied by Guido Müller, a fire man from Reutlingen, Germany, who has been working together with the Mombasa Fire Brigade for many years and has helped us set up the project along with Walter, a local diving instructor and Mombasa resident for more than 25 years.

Together with Guido, we met Mr Sammy Murimi, the chief of the Mombasa Fire Brigade. We had a nice first meeting followed by an introduction to the operations and equipment at the Fire Brigade. It was remarkable for us to see that out of 11 vehicles, mostly donated by developed Western countries, only one was fully operational. By the end of our first visit we were invited to return on Monday morning to be registered as consultants to the Fire Brigade at Mombasa City Hall.

Monday morning, after a 50 minute Tuktuk ride through the smog of Mombasa and many new impressions of Africa, we arrived at the Fire Brigade only to discover that business in Kenya does not run as smooth as we are used to. First, Mr Sammy asked us to wait until he has made an appointment at the city hall. 

While we were waiting, we received a more detailed introduction to the Fire Brigade by the Duty Officer Mr Jackson, with whom we spent around 5 hours discussing the problems of the Fire Brigade and also about his personal plans to become a fire prevention equipment supplier. After this relationship building session Mr Sammy informed us that there is no possibility to register at the city hall and asked us to come back on Wednesday.

Wednesday morning, while passing the street market that is situated in front of the Fire Brigade, we noticed loud music and singing people. When we entered the Fire Brigade it was also a different atmosphere compared to our previous visits. It took a long time until someone approached us and furthermore the firemen were even less enthusiastic about their work and the main entrance was closed. Suddenly, the door opened and a mob of around 30 people singing and dancing with flowers in their hands entered the yard of the Fire Brigade. A short time later Mr Sammy informed us that the local civil servants are on strike due to a delay of salary payments for more than two months, and for reasons of security we should stay away from the Fire Brigade until Tuesday when the strike should be over

The next day, Thursday July 4th, the situation changed yet again. Following the disappointment of the previous day we met Salim, a Fire and Rescue Trainer of the Fire Brigade who also has very good contact with Guido. He shared his vision with us on how to improve the situation of the Fire Brigade and provided insight into the hierarchy and organisational structure of the Fire Brigade. Salim is also responsible for providing swimming lessons to children of our partner projects at Blue Bell and St. Joseph. As we reach the first week milestone we are optimistic that our initiatives will gain ground and will be developed further in the coming weeks.