Fri | Jan 10, 2025

Kenya’s president blames corruption and incompetence for gas explosion that injured hundreds in Nairobi

Published:Saturday | February 3, 2024 | 11:24 AM
This grab taken from a video provided by Philip Awinyo Jeremiah shows a fireball after a vehicle loaded with gas which exploded, in Nairobi, Kenya, Friday, February 2, 2024. The truck explosion ignited a huge fireball, and a flying gas cylinder set off a fire that burned down the Oriental Godown, a warehouse that deals with garments and textiles, according to government spokesman Isaac Mwaura. ( (Philip Awinyo Jeremiah via AP)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya's president says corruption and officials' incompetence allowed a liquid petroleum plant to operate in one of Nairobi's most crowded residential neighbourhoods, where an explosion killed three people and injured more than 280 others.

President William Ruto said the officials who gave licences to the plant must be dismissed and prosecuted.

Police are also looking for the site's owners.

At least 24 people were critically injured when the huge fireball erupted from the gas depot late Thursday and spread rapidly in Kenya's capital, burning homes and warehouses.

Some gas cylinders were thrown hundreds of meters (yards), sparking separate fires.

Although at the time of the fire the site was operating illegally, Ruto said some licenses had been issued for the gas plant to operate in a residential area.

“It was very clear that it was the wrong thing to do but because of incompetence, corruption, they issued licenses,” Ruto told a gathering in the western Kenya town of Lugari.

“Today we have injuries, we have Kenyans who have died. Those fellows who are involved in this, the ministry must immediately take action on them and they must be dismissed and prosecuted for the crimes they have committed,” he said.

The National Environment Management Authority board said in a statement it has suspended four officials, including the director of environmental compliance. The chairman of the board, Emilio Mugo, asked police to investigate the four.

Nairobi police boss Adamson Bungei said they are also looking for the owners of the yard. “We are pursuing them for questioning,” he said.

The depot in Nairobi's Embakasi neighbourhood had twice been demolished, and the owner had been found guilty of operating an illegal gas refilling business in May but continued to do business, officials said Friday. That raised suspicions — in a country where corruption is endemic — that bribes were paid to ignore the operation.

Kenya is considered among the world's most corrupt countries, ranked 126th out of 180 nations by Transparency International's corruption perception index of 2023.

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