After the Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi in September 2013, the Kenya Red Cross organised blood donation across the country. An IFRC final report preserves a photograph captioned as long queues during the donation drive at Uhuru Park. The response planned six donation centres and aimed to provide 3,000 units of blood to hospitals treating casualties.
The line should not turn catastrophe into an uplifting tale. It was emergency logistics, gathering medically usable blood one donor at a time. Alongside citizens' willingness stood the necessary order of screening, collection and storage.