Reporters were visibly shaken and one said it was the worst thing he has ever covered. On Sunday a tanker exploded near Nakuru. Many are dead and dreadfully injured but the reason for so many victims is horrifying. The Nakuru-Eldoret highway is the main road from Mombasa & Nairobi through to Uganda and points beyond. All goods traffic including petroleum must travel this road which has a number of ‘black spots’ for accidents.
Young men from the poorest areas sit by the roadside waiting for an accident to happen, when they immediately loot both the goods and the victims.
On Sunday morning a tanker parked on the road side. Sometimes they pull off for a rest or for a mechanical check. Other times they park to siphon fuel from their tanks to sell to roadside brokers. Such illicit fuel is sold openly in the area. After the sale they free wheel down the hills, often contributing to more accidents.
For some reason (maybe the brakes failed or weren’t properly set) the vehicle slid into a ditch and burst open. If you’ve ever seen the condition of some of the tankers you would see how that could happen.
Hundreds of people swarmed the site armed with all kinds of containers and jerrycans.
To quote the article: ‘According to the official version of events, the (police) officers tried to keep the crowd away from the dangerous cargo. Some survivors, however, claim the officers were charging the villagers a fee of between 50 and 100 shillings to be allowed to fill their containers from the tanker.
Motorcyclists were called and summoned to the scene to take advantage of the ‘free fuel.’
Then disaster struck. As people waded or parked their vehicles in the spilled fuel there was suddenly an explosion. Over 110 people were burned alive and nearly 200 injured. A massive evacuation of victims to all available hospitals went on for hours.
Oh the humanity!
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