1st December, 2015
Dear Strathmore University leaders,
I have looked for your official email addresses all night to no avail.
It is now morning and I have no more time left to sacrifice in that
pursuit, so allow me to say my piece to you here.
First of all, I applaud your efforts at trying to boost disaster
preparedness in the Strathmore fraternity. Given the realities of terror
in this country and in the world at large, it is very important that we
all know how to respond in the case of a terror attack and any other
(unpredictable) emergency situation.
Unfortunately, few institutions
have taken up the challenge to prepare their charges for such situations
and the few who have, like yourself, must be commended for that.
But first a few definitions: A drill is a TEST that happens after
adequate TRAINING. Training is teaching. I am alive to the fact that not
all students and staff will be trained, and there might be untrained
visitors during the drill, however, it would be expected that most of
your students and staff have been trained several times on how to
respond to various emergencies, bearing in mind that different
emergencies may call for a different response. For example, you might
respond to fire a little differently than to an armed attacker or to a
flood.
Once you are satisfied that you have met the standards of adequate
training, you can then proceed to test at random through drills.
During
training the trainees should be made aware that drills are random to
mimic the randomness of a real emergency.
However, if the numerous reports from your students on social media are
anything to go by, then they either did not receive adequate training
before the test (drill) or received no training at all prior to the
test. In your own press statement after the drill, you wrote and I quote
with capitals for emphasis:
"In preparation for this (drill) TEAMS of SECURITY MARSHALLS comprising
of staff, students and emergency response teams WERE TRAINED on
evacuation, assembly points and exit points."
Anyone with an inkling of information on security drills will tell you
that security marshalls form a fraction of the population in which the
drill will take place. If only a (small) fraction know what to do in an
emergency, how then do you later go on to claim that "The simulation was
aimed at TESTING the preparedness of the university community and
emergency team in the event of an attack."?
The emergency team passed
with flying colors, obviously so, as they had already been trained
(great applause from your press statement), but what of the larger
university community who took the test without prior training? You may
disagree with me, but their response was disastrous. One person dead
during a DRILL is one too many. Thirty-one people injured to the point
of hospitalisation during a DRILL are just too many. It beats the
purpose of testing for disaster preparedness when you already know that
majority of your students and staff are ill-equipped to handle a terror
attack.
As if a life lost and tens injured and hospitalised was not bad
(saddening) enough, in your press statement you appeared to shrug it all
off: "Some students and staff panicked and got injured ... situation is
under control ... normal operations have resumed ... the university will
cater for medical expenses for injuries incurred during the drill ...
counselling will be provided for the affected ..."
Normal operations resumed for whom? Did you not see the trauma your
students poured out on social media, the only "safe" space they could
turn to in their hour of need? Are those the same people for whom normal
operations had resumed. Will paying Esther Midemba's mortuary, funeral
and burial costs bring her back to life because "normal operations have
resumed"?
But you already washed your hands off this matter. To you it was a
successful drill, and like any other successful drill, there was
collateral damage -- nothing significant, just a negligible number; mere
statistics. But let me remind you that one life lost during a drill is
ONE TOO MANY. Thirty-one people injured to the point of hospitalisation
are just too many. Thirty-two is not just a number. These are precious
humans and the least you could give them in this time of pain, trauma
and loss is some sensitivity, some empathy, some dignity.
You may be too proud to admit that things went awry (I mean tragic) but
could you please be humble enough to be sensitive to Esther's memory
(may her soul rest in peace). A little sensitivity even to the injured
would go a long way, but it appears you are more interested in thumping
your chest and asserting that all is well. Could you stop for a moment
to empathise with the pain, the tears, the trauma, the loss of all those
affected? Or are they just collateral damage in an otherwise very
successful drill? Are they mere statistics, a negligible fraction of the
Strathmore population? Or are they humans who matter and who got hurt
in a process that was meant to be for their own good?
Remember they see
you as the genesis of their pain, their trauma, their loss. Please, get
an expert to help you with the messaging for crisis communication to
avoid inflicting any more pain. One person traumatised is one too many.
It'd be better for you to remain silent than for you to communicate
apathy, indifference, nonchalance.
The 31+1 who are visibly injured (one
dead) are human and deserve dignity, please. And you can be sure there
are many others invisibly (invisible to you) affected by the events of
yesterday.
We cannot undo the past, we can only learn from it. I know right now you
are more focused on "intensive assessment of the key lessons learnt" so
you can produce a report for the authorities. One more thing to check
off your checklist before you put all this behind you and move on with
your lives and repeat another drill some time in the future to test the
"key lessons learnt" from previous drill. Spit, rinse, repeat.
But
pause, take a few moments to reflect on the happenings of yesterday. You
don't have to be quick to respond. Aside from learning that the
Strathmore fraternity is or is not adequately prepared to respond to
attacks, have you learnt anything about seeing your students and staff
as more than just a number, as humans who deserve to be treated not with
the terror you want to prepare them to respond to effectively, but with
humanity and dignity? Strathmore is known for excellence, for going
beyond the superficial to develop the whole (wo)man. Please, live up to
the Strathmore we know. You can do better. Do better.
PS - don't forget empathy. Empathy. Empathy. Thirty-two is not just a
number.
Your eternal admirer
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