Governor for Nairobi County Johnson Sakaja has blamed the owners of premises in Embakasi where the gas explosion happened saying that they need to be accountable for negligence.
Governor Sakaja was speaking at Mradi Estate where he visited the fire victims, saying that he held the premise owners responsible and accountable.
“I want to assure all Nairobians and Kenya at large that the owners of the gas plant will be held responsible and accountable,” said Sakaja.
Over 100 households were last week affected by the gas explosion and over 300 suffered serious burns and were admitted to various referral hospitals within Nairobi.
Governor Sakaja also directed the sub-county administration officers to roll out an operation to close other illegal gas plants within the city
He said that the move would be the surest way of ensuring the safety of the Nairobians by preventing any future occurrence of the same catastrophe.
“I have directed all the 17 Sub County administrators to ensure that all the illegal gas businesses are closed immediately,” said the Governor.
At the time of his orders, the owners of the said gas plant have been arraigned alongside other National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) have been apprehended.
Governor Sakaja also warned that any administrator who would fail to effect the orders would be assumed as part of the ill-mannered happenings which led to the loss of lives.
“Any Sub County Administrator who will fail to enforce these orders will also be grouped with perpetrators, held accountable for the negligence of duty,” added Sakaja.
He also called on the residents to be on high alert for any such illegal businesses that may cause further loss.
He said that the Nairobi City County Government will continue offering support to the victims as they recover from the incident.
On the other hand, Embakasi East legislator Paul Ongili, alias Babu Owino blamed both the County and National Government for what he termed as negligence.
He slammed the County government for failing to offer ‘substantial’ effort, saying that out of the allocated Kshs 250 million, the county government only had to give out Kshs 250,000.
Babu proposed that the victims should be the first beneficiaries of the affordable housing project, some of which are now complete.
“We only need about 300 of such units to house the victims. These are the first people who should enjoy such houses on a free basis. Already, there are complete houses in Ngara,” said the legislator.
The same idea was also from Raila Odinga who asked the government to give at least Kshs 500,000 to each of the affected households as compensation.
He also slammed the Kenya Kwanza Government on what he termed as sluggishness to compensate the victims.
“The Kenya Kwanza should now move with speed and compensate every household Kshs 500,000 as goodwill.
It’s a shame that the government has remained negligent when it comes to cushioning those who gave them mandate at times of need,” he said.
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