Disasters being a serious disruption of the normal functioning of a society which affect the social, economic and environmental activities and exceeds the coping capacity of the society has become a rampant deed that affect Kenya as a country. Disasters have various sources and are of varied extends. Disasters can cause a lot of damages and if not early detected and acted upon can affect the economic condition of a country. A lot of disasters are present in the current Kenya and include the flooding that affect majorly the people of Budalangi, Terrorism which has affected a lot of people in the country and many more disasters that affect people in day-to-day basis.
These disasters in Kenya should therefore be curbed to reduce the cost and damage that they bring a long with their happening. Kenya should therefore try to ensure that they develop and establish disaster management points and centers that will thereby save the nation from the devastating impacts that the disasters will cause. In line with this and through the understanding of disasters, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology developed a Center to offer courses which would be related to disasters. This center in this university is the main and the most unique center that equip students with the necessary skills that ensure that they can identify, detect, allocate resource to prevent the devastating effects to the society, mitigate the disasters and manage the effects that may be caused by the disasters.
Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology is the only public university that offer the disaster-related courses in Kenya. The students that graduate from this center are thereby enrolled and successfully establish disaster centers that help in the curbing of the disasters. The courses that are offered by this center in Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology are varied and are enrolled by most of the students who want to help the society in the reduction of disasters and their effects. The courses involved are;
- B.sc in Disaster Preparedness and Engineering Management where the students are taught on how to be able to detect the occurrence of a disaster, prepare the society on how they can handle and cope with the occurrence of the disaster and inform them on the possible ways on how they can be able to avoid the impacts which the potential disaster will cause. This course enable the students to develop early warning systems which will detect and inform the society on when and where a disaster is about to happen.
- B.sc in Disaster Mitigation and Sustainable Development on the other hand is a course offered under this center which is involved in the actions after a disaster occurrence. The actions which involve the development of strategies that will enable the society to be able to cope with the impacts of a disaster. The students from this unit ensure that the affected community will be able to overcome the impact of available disasters in their areas as some disasters are inevitable. They also develop sustainable environment in case the impacts is excess for the coping capacity of the community, they can evacuate to other areas before the impacts are over.
- B.sc in Disaster Management and International Diplomacy enable the students to manage the disasters which have occurred in the recent past. The management process involves the actions that will strengthen the coping capacity of the affected society. With a strong coping capacity, they can be able to cope with any disaster impact. The course equip the students with the skills and knowledge on how to strengthen these societies.
- B.sc in Conflict Resolution and Humanitarian Assistance is the last but not least course offered under this center. Disasters alongside devastating impacts cause conflicts between the communities involved in the disaster occurrence. This course enable the students to settle the conflicts involved and bring peace in the society which are disaster-prone. Apart from conflicts, disasters cause injuries which leave a lot of people with medical needs. Graduates from this course enable them to provide assistance to the disaster- victims.
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