Kenya: Deadly Nairobi Gas Explosion Injures Nearly 300

Facts

• A truck carrying gas cylinders exploded in a parking lot located within a residential area of Nairobi, Kenya on Thursday night, killing at least three people — including a child — and causing almost 300 injuries.¹
• Several houses, commercial properties, and vehicles were damaged as the blast ignited a huge fireball that 'spread widely' in the southeast Embakasi district. Firefighters reportedly managed to extinguish the blaze by around 9 a.m. (local time) on Friday.²
• Shopkeepers and businesses in the area reportedly called the garage owner by 9 p.m. on Thursday to warn about a hissing noise suspected to be gas leaking from a truck. Emergency calls to the police were allegedly responded to only after the explosion had already taken place.³
• Kenya's Energy and Petroleum Regulation Authority confirmed that the incident took place at an unlicensed cooking gas filling plant. The facility was located in an area where the watchdog denied construction permits for a Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) storage and filling plant three times last year.⁴
• The Authority noted that the applications received in March, June, and July were rejected for failing to provide a Qualitative Risk Assessment, which was needed due to the high population density around the proposed site.⁵
• Meanwhile, Kentainers Limited, a company that some media reports had linked to the gas explosion, dismissed any allegations by stating that it had relocated its operations to separate Nairobi Gate Industrial Park in the Northlands area.⁶

Sources: ¹BBC News, ²Le Monde.fr, ³Nation, ⁴CNN, ⁵The Standard and ⁶The Star.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Dw.Com. The rules and regulations make it obvious that it's inappropriate to run a gas storage and filling business near a residential area. Running the operation was a crime, as was allowing it to operate in the first place. The authorities knew of the illegal operation but did nothing to stop it. Rumors are swirling about local officials being bribed for violating building codes and regulations. Corruption and negligence could very well have helped to create this horrible tragedy.
• Narrative B, as provided by TRT Afrika. Those responsible for this disaster will be held accountable. Last year, the owner of the illegal LPG refilling and storage site where the blast occurred, as well as some of his customers, had already been convicted and sentenced. An investigation needs to be conducted before jumping to conclusions, but Kenya has robust systems in place to probe disasters like this and prosecute as appropriate.

Predictions