Kenya switched on its first dedicated Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team in May 2026, and as of September 2026 it has already been credited with saving more than 20 lives pulled from collapsed buildings. Built by the Kenya Police Service’s National Disaster Management Unit (NDMU), the Nairobi and Kiambu County Fire Brigades, and the Polish Center for International Aid (PCPM), the team is Kenya’s first specialised structural-collapse rescue capability — and one of the first of its kind in East Africa. For NGOs, CBOs and county disaster offices, this guide covers what the USAR programme actually is, why it exists, and where local organisations fit in.
What Is Kenya’s New Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Capability?
USAR refers to the specialised skills needed to find, extricate and stabilise people trapped in collapsed structures — shoring up unstable rubble, breaching concrete, working in confined spaces, and coordinating a multi-agency response rather than a single crew turning up with ladders. Kenya’s USAR team was formally inaugurated on 7 May 2026 in a launch event bringing together the NDMU, the Nairobi and Kiambu county fire brigades and PCPM, fully funded under Poland’s official development cooperation programme, Polish Aid.
“This is not only a new operational capability, but a sustainable model for building rescue capacity across the region,” PCPM CEO Wojtek Wilk said at the launch, describing it as a benchmark other East African countries could follow.
Why Did Kenya Need This Now?
The timing isn’t abstract. Kenya has had a rough run of building collapses in 2026, and safety audits suggest the underlying risk is widespread rather than a handful of bad-luck incidents.
| Date (2026) | Location | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| 2 January | South C, Nairobi | 12-storey building under construction collapsed; 2 killed |
| 10 January | Karen/Ngong Road, Nairobi | Building under construction collapsed; 2 killed, at least 7 injured |
| 21 May | Ngong, Kajiado | 8-storey building under construction collapsed; multi-agency rescue response |
| 9 September | Ugembo, Kisii County | 5-storey building collapsed; Kenya Red Cross and county teams searched for trapped workers |
| 21 September | Mamboleo, Kisumu | Building partially collapsed; 8 people injured |
The structural picture behind these incidents is worse than any single collapse suggests. Inspections carried out under Nairobi’s National Building Inspectorate found that only around 15% of the buildings assessed were structurally sound — meaning roughly 85% needed major repairs or posed a real safety risk. The Architectural Association of Kenya has pointed to weak enforcement of building codes, corruption in approvals, and substandard materials as the recurring causes. That combination of an ageing, under-inspected building stock and a fast-growing city is exactly the scenario USAR capability is designed for.
How Was Kenya’s USAR Team Actually Built?
The team didn’t appear overnight. PCPM has worked in Kenya since 2014, and Polish instructors have partnered with Kenyan fire and rescue services since 2016 to build technical skills, operational standards and training systems from the ground up. A central piece of that work was the Fire and Rescue Training Center (FIRETRACK) in Kiambu, developed with Polish support between 2018 and 2020 and now serving as Kenya’s national firefighter training hub, complete with the only dedicated USAR drill yard in East Africa.
Under the current 2024–2026 phase of the project, that infrastructure translated into an operational team: 75 USAR specialists trained from the NDMU and the Nairobi and Kiambu fire brigades, plus 21 First Responders drawn from seven counties, with another 180 First Responders planned for training in the months ahead. Of those trained so far, 45 rescuers hold National Level 4 certification, the country’s top qualification tier for this kind of work. In PCPM’s own post-training evaluations, participants rated the courses an average of 4.65 out of 5, and more than 90% said the skills were directly usable in real operations.
Has the Team Actually Saved Lives?
Yes — and this is what separates the USAR launch from a typical capacity-building press release. Trained members of the Nairobi–Kiambu USAR team have already deployed to real building-collapse incidents in 2026, and PCPM credits the team with contributing to saving at least 20 lives in those operations so far. That track record is part of why the programme is being framed as a template: a foreign-funded, government-embedded rescue capability that is not just certified on paper but has already been tested against real emergencies.
How Does This Fit Alongside Kenya Red Cross’s Own Expansion?
USAR isn’t the only rescue capacity Kenya has been building in 2026. Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) signed its own partnership with China’s Blue Sky Rescue in August, aimed at an elite, internationally benchmarked rescue team, on top of a roughly 150-strong water rescue unit and close to 1,000 active volunteers — we covered that expansion in detail in Search and Rescue NGOs in Kenya: What’s New in 2026. The two programmes are complementary rather than overlapping: KRCS-Blue Sky Rescue is chiefly building volunteer-based flood and water-rescue capacity across counties, while the PCPM-backed USAR team is a specialised, government-embedded unit purpose-built for structural collapses — the scenario Kenya’s building-safety numbers make increasingly likely.
What Can NGOs and CBOs Do With This Information?
Few community organisations will ever run a structural rescue themselves — that stays with NDMU, county fire brigades and KRCS. But the USAR expansion still creates real openings for smaller NGOs and CBOs:
- Build a referral relationship now, not during an emergency. Knowing which county fire brigade or NDMU contact to call — and having that relationship already in place — shortens response time when a building fails.
- Push building-safety advocacy using the inspection data. The 85%-unsafe figure from the National Building Inspectorate is a concrete, citable number for local NGOs and resident associations lobbying county governments for stricter approval enforcement.
- Look at the PCPM model for your own capacity-building proposals. A donor-funded, government-embedded training partnership with a physical training hub (FIRETRACK) is a replicable structure that other international NGOs could adapt for different sectors.
- Plan for the handoff after rescue ends. Search and rescue is the first hours of a response; sheltering, psychosocial support and reconstruction is where most local NGOs actually work — see our guides on rebuilding shelter after Kenya’s 2026 floods and post-disaster counseling in Kenya.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does USAR mean in Kenya’s context?
Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) is the specialised set of skills and equipment used to locate, extricate and stabilise people trapped in collapsed buildings or other complex urban disaster sites — distinct from general firefighting or flood-water rescue.
Who built and funds Kenya’s USAR team?
It’s a multi-agency partnership between the Kenya Police Service’s National Disaster Management Unit, the Nairobi and Kiambu county fire brigades, and the Polish Center for International Aid (PCPM), fully funded through Poland’s Polish Aid development cooperation programme.
How many rescuers has the programme trained?
As of the official launch, 75 USAR specialists and 21 First Responders from seven counties had been trained, with 45 holding Kenya’s top-tier National Level 4 certification, and 180 more First Responders planned.
Has the USAR team responded to real emergencies?
Yes. Trained team members have already been deployed to real building-collapse incidents in Kenya during 2026 and are credited with contributing to saving at least 20 lives.
Is this the same as Kenya Red Cross’s rescue programmes?
No. Kenya Red Cross’s 2026 expansion (via its partnership with China’s Blue Sky Rescue) focuses on volunteer-based flood and water rescue. The PCPM-backed USAR team is a separate, government-embedded specialist unit focused on structural collapses.
By the NGOs.ke Editorial Team.
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