Regular emergency drills are important for schools and workplaces to ensure safety. Drills allow organizations to practice emergency plans and procedures. This helps ensure everyone knows what to do in an emergency without having to think. Specific threats like fires, accidents, or attacks need to be considered and planned for depending on the location. Drills should be conducted regularly and cover procedures for employee evacuation, machine shutdowns, and hazardous materials containment. Creating a culture of preparedness through repeated practice of emergency plans can help save lives.

1. Disaster Preparedness, awareness and
Drills in Schools
Submitted By: Amb Steve Mbugua
Dir; Makinika Afrika Intl
Following the several fire incidents witnessed in our Kenya schools with the latest one at
StephJoy Boys secondary school, there is a great need to have regular fire drills in our learning
institutions probably twice an year.
Drills are a first and important step in keeping schools safe and secure. They are filled with
teachable moments and they are as important to schools as reading, writing and arithmetic. The
purpose of drills is to save lives and property. An Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) is only as
good as the ability of students, faculty and staff to execute it. Following the established plan
requires a quick but careful assessment of the situation and practiced decisions as to the best
course of action.
When everyone at the school/campus regularly practices the plan, school personnel are more
confident in making decisions to effectively and efficiently manage an emergency or major
event. With good training and practice, everyone involved will be better able to react
appropriately to emergency events.
The safety and security of students and staff depends upon everyone knowing, to the extent
possible, what to do when an actual incident occurs. Minutes or even seconds often can make a
critical difference in saving lives. Conducting drills strengthens schools as learning organizations
by empowering and creating a culture of preparedness. Drills allow administrators, staff and
students to better prevent, mitigate, prepare for and recover from a variety of incidents.

2. Think back to when you were a kid in school. Do you remember the various hazard drills you
had to practice? Depending on where you lived were there fire drills, tornado drills, earthquake
drills, intruder drills, explosion drills, road accident drills? etc. The idea is that if such an incident
were to happen, everyone would know what to do without thinking about it. They would just act.
Why is it that once we get into the working world, it seems these drills go by the wayside?
Whether you are just in an office building where you could be threatened by fire or terrorism, or
a shop where there could be industrial accidents like chemical spills, why is it we don‟t always
think to conduct these same „worst case‟ scenario drills?
It‟s time to reinstate the emergency drill. But this will not be just any emergency drill. All
businesses are different, and that means you will have specific needs that have to be met. Think
about what needs to be met in your workplace in an emergency.
Schools and Students Safety
All schools should have health and safety guidelines and every student should be taken through
the rules during orientation. Regular drills and sensitization on the potential hazards and
incidents should be done to ensure that the students, teachers, staff and other stakeholders knows
what to do incase of an emergency.
Possible Threats
In addition to the fire and nature-related threats already mentioned, are there any specific threats
that may impact your workplace (i.e. radiation leaks, chemical spills, explosions from
combustibles). If there are, you need to train your personnel on how to deal with these situations
were they to arise.
Employee Safety
It is important to make sure your employees know where they need to go, and how to get there,
to be safe in an emergency situation.
Machine Shutdown
If you have a number of machines operating in your building, and some need to be monitored or

3. assisted while running so they don‟t burn up or cause more problems, you need a shut-down
procedure that can be followed quickly while still getting your employees to safety in an
emergency situation.
Materials Safety
If your workplace has a number of chemicals or other hazardous materials in use, it is vital that
you have measures in place to attempt to secure these materials as an evacuation or other
emergency operation is underway. Many of these types of companies have special rooms where
the chemicals are kept which can be shut and sealed off as an evacuation is happening.
You should plan regular drills with your employees to make sure they know what to do, when to
do it, and how to do it in case of an emergency. While you may not want to regularly close down
all your operations for a drill, you can go department by department, and make the employees do
a mock incident, and monitor their reactions, noting any mistakes they make in the process.
While it may seem like an inconvenience, the more prepared your company is for the worst the
better chance you will be able to safely shut down operations and get everyone out alive and well
if the worst were to happen.
Creating awareness though emergency drills, and, safety sensitization will be the key in disaster
preparedness and mitigation and will create a culture of resilience. All people should have an
idea of what to do incase there is an incident like fire, shooting, collapsed building, assault, road
accident etc. From my 12 years experience as a volunteer emergency responder, most of the
people do not have an idea of what to do incase of an incident and they end up risking their lives,
causing more harm to the casualties or worsening the situation.
Action plans derived from drills allow schools to translate lessons learned and best practices into
specific corrective steps and measures to continually improve the safety and security of schools.
I recommend that emergency drills be made mandatory for schools and start making drills a way
of life in all institutions!
There is also a need to have trained Community Emergency Response Teams(CERT) in every
sub county to work with the safety stakeholders and the nyumba kumi leaders.

4. “Conducting drills strengthens schools as learning organizations by empowering and creating a
culture of preparedness.”
If you are not safety conscious you may become unconscious, lose life or
properties. Safety starts with me, you, all of us.