More disaster await urban vulnerables
A day after petroleum spillage on a pipeline razed Sinai informal settlement and claimed lives of 88 people in Nairobi, Kenya; the government today announced two days of national mourning after a cabinet meeting chaired by President Mwai Kibaki. Elsewhere relatives, friends and survivors of the fire tragedy gathered at the emergency centre that also serves as tracing centre to seek information and where-about of loved ones.
The fire is said to have erupted from a Kenya Pipeline corporation (KPC) petroleum pipe that connects Mombasa and Nairobi depot. Residents of Sinai settlement are said to have encroached the land unaware of danger posed by petroleum pipes passing beneath their make shift houses. Information of the exact source of fire remains scanty as investigations are underway from both the government of Kenya and Kenya Pipeline Corporation to establish source of fire that has left ninety seven people hospitalized.
Trail of distruction and lose of lives in Nairobi's Sinai slums after petroleum fire left 88 people dead
Residents say that the spillage leaked into drainage system as a result of pressure that later burst all toilets drainage oozing 10,000 liters of super petroleum oil into the river. Fire quickly followed the flow of super petroleum into houses not far from the burst pipes. Residents who tried to cash in on the spillage sustained serious burns while others on fire opted to jump into the river to save their lives.
Doctors at the Kenyatta National Hospital were overwhelmed by medical demands for the patients who sustained 30-90% degree burns and immediately appealed for blankets, bed sheets, and blood donations. KNH is the only referral hospital in Nairobi and serves the entire East Africa. Five of those admitted early at the hospital in critical condition succumbed to burns while seven more bodies were retrieved from chemical polluted Nairobi river streaming through Sinai informal settlements.
Unemployed youths retrieved bodies
Lack of protective clothes such as gloves, gumboots or breathing masks least deterred a group of youths from venturing deep into the polluted Nairobi River to rescue fire victims. “We searched for bodies the entire night, it was dark and water was cold. We didn’t find any body until this morning, when we got six bodies”-said Moses Odhiambo. “We offered to rescue people despite knowledge of the health risk of the river. We only request for antiseptic soap, water and drugs to at least bath”-Odhiambo added.
The youths blamed authorities for lack of preparedness in addressing such calamities. “We doubt if all the bodies have been recovered, this area has a lot of people. Other areas are deep and we were unable to access, but we believe bodies could be there”, they said. One more body was retrieved as this story was being compiled.
Churches offer immediate psycho-social support
ACT Alliance Kenya forum members comprising of Church World Service and Kenya Evangelical Lutheran Church visited the tracing centre and site of the fire tragedy and witnessed desperate situation among the slum dwellers. At the tracing centre, churches had set-up tents and were receiving relatives and survivors and offered psychosocial support through counseling. The tracing centre coordinated by the Kenya Red Cross society also provided food to affected families.
“People are coming here, we offer counseling while others are going to mortuary and hospitals to identify relatives”-said Lucy Macharia a trained counselor working with the Kenya Evangelical Lutheran Church. “We have children, not sure if they ate last night or not” lamented Alice Adhola provincial administrative chief in charge of the tracing centre. “We want [survivors] to feel at home by making them comfortable”, added Adhola.
Twelve counselors from various churches in Nairobi had set camp at the tracing centre ready to talk to families affected by the disaster. It is feared that the number of people coming to the centre might be increase owing to the magnitude of the tragedy. Demand for psycho-social support may increase once people are directed to the centre. “I have talked to a client, who lost a brother and can’t trace him” said one of the counselors. The story is the same in the entire centre as survivors stream in to get registered for possible food ratio.
The fire left hundreds homeless and atleast 97 admitted to hospital with third-degree burns
Initial assessment conducted by ACT Alliance Kenya forum revealed immediate need for blankets, utensils, tents and scaling up psycho-social support. The government of Kenya has vowed to evict the residents from the slum and committed to pay their house rent for one year. It’s yet to be seen if the promise will be honoured owing to mounting pressure on the government to resettle all the Internally Displaced Persons evicted from their homes following the 2007/2008 post election violence that left 1,200 dead and more than 300,000 displaced.
Many residents of Sinai informal settlement have lost property and livelihood and may take long to recover from the fire disaster which has completely changed their lives. Rebecca Nyambura 33, is a single mother of three boys, she sustained head and arm injuries in the fire and is unlikely to continue with farming which enabled her fend for her family. “I now have to depend on friends since my hands are burnt” she lamented.
Many urban vulnerables living in informal settlements are more often ignored by authorities forcing them to literally survive on illegally water connection, encroach land and tap electricity activities that continue to put their lives in danger.
Such human suffering may continue longer in Kenya if more efforts is not devoted to urban vulnerable living in a country over-stretched and burdened with hosting refugees from Somali and responding to the worst drought affecting the East and Horn of Africa
