Assessment of Kenya's Preparedness to Disasters Caused by Natural Hazards: Floods, Drought and Disease Outbreak

In March 2016, the UK’s Department for International Development commissioned Development Initiatives to conduct a political economy study on Kenya’s preparedness to disasters caused by natural hazards, namely floods, droughts and disease outbreaks – human and animal. With the effects of the 2015 El Niño phenomenon as a starting point the study aimed to understand the country’s level of preparedness for these natural hazards both at the national level and the subnational level – looking at Mandera and Migori counties as case studies. Development Initiatives applied a number of tools to gather evidence: key informant interviews, focus-group discussions, literature review and a financial analysis. This report assesses preparedness under different frameworks – guided by UNISDR and UNOCHA definitions: governance and legal; capacity to prepare; linkages to international processes of disaster preparedness; and financial allocations to preparedness.