What happened to the “999” emergency number?
By MUNGAI KIHANYA
The Sunday Nation
Nairobi,
27 January 2008
Some time
back in the mid-1990s, armed gangsters attempted to enter my house. I
spotted them at the gate and immediately tried to call the police. First
I dialled “999” and got the tone that indicates that a number doesn’t
exist.
Then I
remembered that the instructions on public phone booths used to read,
“In case of emergency, dial ‘0’”. So I tried ‘0’ and the line just went
silent. Finally, I called the operator (900). The phone was answered
promptly and I asked to be connected to the police.
The
operator did not know the number to connect me to so she consulted her
colleagues and eventually gave me an ordinary local line and asked me to
dial it myself. Fortunately, by the time I finished talking to the
police, the thugs had given up and gone away.
I
remembered this incident two weeks ago when a full-page advert appeared
in the press listing the “hotline” telephone numbers for various police
stations in the country. According to the list, as a Celtel subscriber,
if I have an emergency in Nairobi city centre, I should call
0736-350100. And when I am at home the number is 0712-179562 (Note, my
nearest police station does not have a Celtel line).
If I am
visiting my parents in “Shags”, the number to call is 0736-350126, and
so on. The full list has 255 telephone numbers (40 Celtel, 8 Safaricom,
122 Telkom Wireless, and 85 Landlines) for the different police stations
plus a general toll-free line, 0800-720002.
Now, no
matter how good you are with figures, it is virtually impossible to
memorise the right number to call from a particular location. That is
the reason why simple short codes are preferred all over the world. In
Kenya, it used to be “999”, then it changed to “0” and eventually
disappeared altogether.
But, in
these days of mobile (wireless) telephony, would it be possible to use a
single short code and connect the caller to the nearest police station?
The answer is yes!
Mobile
phones connect to the service providers via Base Transmitter Stations
(BTS). The telephone systems “know” which BTS is serving each subscriber
at a particular moment.
It is
therefore possible to programme the system in a way that connects
subscribers to the nearest police station whenever the emergency short
code is dialled. If you are at the Nairobi railway station, for example,
you shouldn’t have to wonder whether to call Kamukinji (which is nearer)
or Central (in whose jurisdiction you are). A simple 999 should sort
that out for you and you get help right away.
In my
view, this needs to be implemented immediately and any telephone company
that cannot do it should have its license withdrawn!
PS: I have
just tried calling “999” on my cell-phone; the handset recognised it as
an emergency number; it rung but was not answered.
 |
 |