We are fine, and so are Helen’s colleagues and their families. We know it’s made international news as well, but as you can imagine the coverage here is pretty extensive, and today Nairobi ‘felt’ different – sombre, but also angry.
The Kenya Pipeline Company has a fuel pipeline that runs through the slum area, and at 9am on Monday morning the pipeline had a leak which poured petrol into the storm drains and sewers leading through the slum. Apparently this is a relatively frequent occurrence, as the residents of the area rushed to scoop the diesel out of the drains, knowing they could then sell the free fuel for a few coins or use it in their own homes for cooking. It’s worth taking a moment to imagine that – hundreds of people queuing to stand knee-deep in sewage to scoop out fuel. But this time the fuel was not diesel, but highly flammable ‘super petrol’. And then they think someone threw a cigarette butt into the sewer.
An enormous ball of flames engulfed many people at the scene, and the fire spread through the slum area as lit petrol flowed down mud tracks and into the river.
The Daily Nation newspaper, which had some pretty grisly pictures of the scene, criticises the authorities because many charred, unrecognisable bodies were still lying on the ground, in the river and in the sewers more than eight hours after the event.
Sadly, it is always the same poor, slum-dwelling people here who are affected by such events. We can see our local slum from the window of our 5th floor flat. It isn’t sited on a pipeline ‘exclusion zone’ like Sinai, but in an area reserved for power lines. The tin shacks are built all the way up to and underneath the power lines. There was a fire there shortly before we arrived, originating from a resident’s stove. We can see exactly which homes were burnt down from our vantage point high above – the enormous area of shiny new roofs show where homes were replaced just as quickly, the day after the fire.
Helen’s colleague said to her today, “the thing with us Kenyans, Helen, is that we never learn”.
‘Nairobi’s Urban Depravation’ could easily be a 20,000 word thesis. It’s hard to have a clear view on it. There’s not much black and white here.
I blame the Government for allowing whole areas of the city to be completely without basic services, basic sanitation, the basic support and safety net a government is supposed to provide. I blame them for not heeding the warnings, for not seeing any of this as a priority.
I blame the residents, building homes over the top of the pipeline, not giving even a few metres of lea-way despite the obvious danger. And putting themselves, their neighbours, their children in danger by rushing for the fuel. As if to rub salt into the wound, the Nation re-printed an article they wrote in 2009 in which a Pastor whose church was built over the pipeline said “The Bible says that God is fire. Well my church is right on top of the pipeline, and I am aware of the possibility of a fire outbreak”. Why on earth would they build a church there? Why would people go? Why would nothing be done even after this warning?
I blame the local MPs and well-meaning NGOs who have been fighting against eviction notices served repeatedly on the slum residents nearest the pipeline, precisely to clear the area and make it safer. They’ve argued that the slum residents have a right to stay where they are, especially those that were born there. Aren’t they right? But didn’t they realise the danger?
And I blame the Kenya Pipeline Company, caring little for the slum residents and seeing the area as a handy shortcut from one depot to another. And for regularly pouring leaking and excess diesel into the drains of the slum, creating the expectation amongst the residents that more of this valuable commodity would come flowing their way.
But blame doesn’t help anyone. Action might. But will lessons be learnt? On the way home I was left speechless when my bus passed a 'missing persons' noticeboard covered in hundreds of photos, surrounded by a crowd.
NB: As a footnote, the appeals for help following the fire on radio, newspaper and facebook took us aback. Not just for money for the families of the dead and the many people maimed, and blood donors as you’d expect in the Western world, but also more basic asks. Unable to discharge those with treatable injuries because they no longer have homes to go back to, Kenyatta National hospital is running almost a refugee camp for these displaced people. We heard a radio appeal asking, ‘if anyone has any spare bed sheets, or food or room heaters we really need them here at the hospital’. A caller proudly announced he had personally donated ‘200kgs of sugar’ – a huge contribution, given that Kenyans are currently facing a sugar shortage.
You can read the coverage in more detail here.
No comments:
Post a Comment