After Sinai Fire (Kenya) The Government Starts Blame Game

September 12, 2011 a fire razes through the sprawling Sinai slum and razes hundreds of home to ashes leaving a massive loss of lives and property. The fire was triggered by an overflow of pure Petrol from the State pipeline main terminus.

The leakage from the depot was the sole responsible of the fire. The leakage from the main terminus after overflowing started flowing from the overflow outlet which ends up in the Ngong River that snakes through the Sinai slum. The peasants from this region upon noticing it was Petrol started collecting the black gold. However, it was in the wee hours of the morning and there are hotel fires, and road side food joints are said to be the major cause that started the inferno. At least by now more than 200 people have been speculated dead however the figure is distorted with no real figure some articulating the figure to be over 300 people. The slum is structured over the 33 year old Kenya only pipeline. Analyst have speculated that even with the Sinai fire tragedy that pipeline has extended its service life line which is supposed to be between 15-20 years. This they state that the Kenyan pipeline is a ticking time bomb, that one day it will cause unknown damage. Now more than one thousand families are left in the cold. The government instead of compensating the victims is now shifting the blame to the peasants and the insurer of the pipeline. The locals are now being house under the care of Tom Mboya memorial hall along Jogoo Road where their fate is uncertain. From the past review of how the Internally Displaced Persons cases were handled this depicts the government of Kenya lack of appropriate tool to disaster management and preparedness. The unprecedented events further dammed the government lack to facilitate for its people when the rescue missions were carried out by Kenya Red Cross Society with the help of Sinai residents. One day after the tragedy the government did not provide for the machinery required to help search for the missing person in the river. However, concerned residents were seen wading with no protective clothing in the murky sewer waters of the Gong River looking for bodies of their loved ones. Now a month is ending and the government only offers promises to the victims just like the IDP's were given false promises which were never to be till now they are living in camps in major towns of Kenya.