Assessment of disaster preparedness and risk management at the state law office Nairobi

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the state of disaster preparedness of records at the State Law Office. With the objective of; finding out the existence of a disaster preparedness policy of records at the State law office, determining the potential disasters facing the State law office records registry, investigating the measures being put in place to manage disaster the extent to which staffs in this department know about disaster preparedness, determining the challenges encountered in disaster preparedness of records in the state law office and proposing possible solutions to the challenges faced in disaster preparedness in the state law office. This study used both qualitative and quantitative data. In the qualitative approach, it was concerned with the subjective assessment of the respondents’ attitudes, opinions and behavior. Quantitative method was used to infer from the population. Descriptive study design will be used because the purpose of the study is simply to describe, with means or proportions, one or more characteristics in one particular group. The researcher focused on an estimated target population of 79 members of staff at the State law office records registry who formed the target population of the study. The results revealed that all the respondents are well educated. A large proportion of the registry’s workers as per this study has shown have at least a secondary education with a quite a number having diploma certificate and degrees, with a few having post graduate or masters degree and are thus sufficiently informed to answer adequately the questions pertaining to disaster preparedness in the registry. It emerged from the study that there are no disaster control plan and management team in the registry. The absence of these will invariably affect the registry’s effort to prevent, fight and manage disasters when they occur. The study recommended that the State Law Office should establish a disaster preparedness committee; Disaster preparedness responsibilities should be incorporated into the job descriptions of some staff of the registry; The State Law Office records registry should conduct risk assessments to determine the nature, frequency and possible impact of disasters on their records; Disaster and security drills should be conducted regularly for staff working in the registry; Workshops and seminars should also be run for members of staff to acquaint them with knowledge of the disasters that may cause damage to records and how to handle damaged records.