Kenya
Kenya
Since 2014, the Polish Center for International Aid (PCPM) has supported the development and professionalization of the Kenya Fire And Rescue Services.This is the largest Polish development aid project in East Africa.
The PCPM has supported the development and professionalization of the Kenya Fire And Rescue Services. Thanks to our efforts, the country now has 71 fire stations, up from 26, and more than 1,500 firefighters, up from 450. PCPM has trained almost 60 percent of Kenya’s firefighting personnel.
Thanks to the Polish Center for International Aid (PCPM), the number of fire stations in Kenya has increased from 26 to 71, and the number of firefighters has grown from 450 to over 1500. In total, PCPM has trained nearly 60% of Kenya’s firefighting personnel. In the years 2024-2026, the Foundation will develop a specialized search and rescue team.
Ongoing projects
Structural collapses are unfortunately a very common occurrence in the Nairobi Metropolitan Area. In the last seven years alone, there have been 29 such disasters, resulting in 58 deaths and 116 injuries. The data is certainly underestimated, as there is currently no central, accurate registry in the country.
Effective services such as the fire service perform many tasks, with firefighting being just one of them. At the request of the Kenyan Ministry of Interior and the National Disaster Management Unit, in the years 2024-2026 PCPM will focus on building a search and rescue team. The project is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Polish aid program.
The work will be based on three pillars: training, equipment and infrastructure. In the first module, PCPM will establish a search and rescue team in the Nairobi area, which will be trained in the following years until full readiness is achieved. At the same time, specialized equipment will be provided that is necessary for work on rubble.
Such a team does not exist in Kenya and all the knowledge transferred will be new. Therefore, practical training is very important, and a training ground will be needed for this purpose. The PCPM Foundation has experience, as it has already built one fire training ground in Kenya for firefighting training. Now it will build another one dedicated to work on rubble.
In the following years, the training ground will be expanded, among other things, to include storage facilities, and training will continue, both for the search and rescue team and for emergency response services. A command vehicle will also be provided for the team, which will increase efficiency, and in the last module in 2026 it will be adapted to transport rescuers.
After 2 years, PCPM will start training trainers and integrating the team. As a result, Kenya will gain both a fully functional search and rescue team and instructors who will be able to train future rescuers.
Previous Activities
Polish aid has been at the forefront of systemic change by providing fire department personnel with the country’s first-ever opportunity to obtain professional certifications. Polish experts developed a program of certified specialized training and a system of recognition of professional qualifications for firefighters in Kenya, which is unique in the country’s education system.
“Creating firefighting structures in Kenya is a task spread over years, but the results of our work are quickly becoming apparent. Since 2016, we have been sending instructors from Poland to Kenya, who have so far conducted classes at various fire stations around the country. With the opening of the center in Kiambu, we can increase the number of trained firefighters and the effectiveness of training. Ultimately, we want this place to also be used by emergency services from neighboring countries – Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia or Tanzania”
PhD Wojtek Wilk CEO of the Polish International Aid Center Foundation
For the first time in the history of Kenya, thanks to the creation and implementation of a national system of certified training and recognition of professional qualifications, 103 people earned diplomas with the professional title of firefighter. This formal title boosts the professionalism of firefighters, provides better career opportunities, enhances safety of the local community, and puts Kenya in line with international standards in professional education and specialized rescue services.
One of the most important elements of official professional certification is the final state examinations recognized and conducted by specific institutions in Kenya. Hence, in cooperation with local and national authorities, the PCPM Foundation has created a complete examination system for the firefighting profession. At PCPM’s request, project partner Kiambu County signed an official cooperation agreement with one of the most important vocational education institutions in Kenya – the Nyeri National Polytechnic (NNP). The agreement covered the Kiambu Fire and Rescue Training Center, built by PCPM.
The Mombasa-Nairobi-Uganda road is an East African transportation corridor and is notorious for its high number of road accidents. Until recently, almost half of the Mombasa-Nairobi Expressway was not served by any road accident response services, and accident victims lacked specialized care.
To improve the situation, PCPM built two fire stations, the first one in Makueni County in the period 2021 – 2022, and the second one in Machakos County in 2022 – 2023, opened in October 2023. Thus, the distance to reach the accident decreased from 235 km to 55 km, and the services can now reach the injured within an hour. Rescuers arrive at the accidents faster, which reduces the number of fatalities and allows injured people to reach medical facilities faster. Since the handover of the fire station, the staff carried out 25 road traffic accidents rescue operations, 7 firefighting operations and 1 drowning rescue operation. The increase in safety levels also attracted private investors. A local hospital was built in the area in 2023, and long-suspended works on the tourist and hotel complex were finally completed.
This is the largest Polish development project in East Africa. In the years 2021-2023, the activities were financed by the Polish aid program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland. PCPM’s annual budget for activities in Kenya accounts for approximately PLN 1.5 million. In total, since 2014 PCPM has implemented projects in Kenya worth approximately PLN 14 million.
