Oil Tanker Explosion

Less than a week after the Nakumatt Downtown fire, another fire tragedy has struck Kenya. On Saturday an oil tanker overturned on the Eldoret-Nakuru road near Molo town. Hundreds of people ran to the oil tanker to collect/siphon any fuel they could. The crash happened in a poor part of Kenya and the people siphoned the fuel to try to sell it. Most of the people who rushed to the scene were women and young children. Among the crowd of people that gathered were a group of boys who were playing football (soccer) at a nearby field. Several Kenya Police officers were at the scene trying to prevent the looting.

Without notice the oil tanker exploded severely burning many people. The first fire engine to respond arrived at the scene an hour after the explosion.

The death toll continues to climb but the latest report is that over 111 people have been killed and over 117 are still hospitalized with severe burns. Of the 111 people killed, 16 of the 26 children who were playing football (soccer) at the nearby field were burned to death. The Daily Nation reported today that the Kenya Red Cross has declared 36 children are still missing. Among the dead were also the three Kenya Police officers.

The last few evenings, this oil tanker explosion has been the top story as the death toll continues to rise. One of the evenings on the news, they interviewed a mother who had lost both of her children in the explosion. As much as the government has made promises in the days after the Nakumatt Downtown fire and the oil tanker explosion, unless the underlying issues are addressed instances like this will continue to happen. The reason why hundreds of women and children rushed to collect fuel from the overturned tanker was not because of greed but because they like 10 million other Kenyans are facing extreme poverty and starvation. You cannot tell hungry people not to collect fuel from an overturned tanker if this fuel can mean that a family can feed their children more than just one meal of ugali a day.