By Standard Team

Three people were confirmed dead and several others missing after a goods train derailed and crushed makeshift buildings in Nairobi’s Kibera slums. Four wagons of the train veered off the rail at a sloping section in Mashimoni and rolled onto the structures. The death toll from the accident is expected to rise as a recovery mission continued last evening. This was, however, being hampered by logistical challenges and hostile youth.

Three people were rescued from under the wagons and rushed to hospital moments after it happened. Kenya Red Cross Society officials at the scene said seven people had been reported missing after the incident.

The train was carrying unprocessed cooking oil from Nairobi to Nakuru. It was navigating a slope when the wagons toppled from the rail and crashed into nearby homes.

The 10am incident caused panic in the densely populated slum and attracted a crowd, which first rushed for the oil with jerricans and any other containers that could carry the product.

Police said they could not tell how many people were trapped beneath the wagons at the time the accident took place because the area is usually a beehive of activity.

Head of Railway Police unit Alice Naliaka said preliminary investigations had shown that there was a church event with at least ten people, pedestrians and hawkers at the site when the train derailed.

"We can only work on the figures of those who have been rescued and found dead. We cannot tell how many are down there for now," she said.

This is the second time a train derailed off the line at Mashimoni this week. Another train carrying petrol derailed at the same place last week and engineers were still working there when on Monday’s incident happened.

The railway cuts through the Mashimoni section of Kibera. It also marks the boundaries of the Kianda, Soweto West, Soweto East, Gatwekera, Kambi Muru, Makina, Laini Saba and Kisumu Ndogo sections.

Structures built near the site of the derailment were two metres from the railway line. The law stipulates that all structures be at least 30 metres from the railway line.

Following the incident, drama unfolded when the villagers started to scramble for the crude cooking oil leaving those trapped under the wagons begging for help.

One youth was overhead saying there was little they could do to rescue the trapped ones because the wagons were heavy and they did not have the equipment to help in removing them.

Violence erupted when a group of journalists arrived at the scene earlier than police. One journalist was hit and seriously injured on the head by the marauding youths when he tried to take pictures of them looting.

The injured journalist was taken to hospital bleeding by police who arrived at the scene moments later. It took the arrival of combined police from General Service Unit, regular Police and Administration Police to calm the situation after pushing back the surging crowd.

The recovery of the trapped victims could not gain the required momentum because the area is densely populated and that there are no access routes to allow special cranes needed to do the work.

The arrival of a crane through the railway line was also delayed after engineers from Rift Valley Railways said they had to repair the rail to enable it pass.

About six hours after the incident had happened the recovery had not begun due to logistical challenges.

A group of rowdy youths had also tried to block the arrival of the crane before police were sent to disperse them. Nairobi Area deputy police boss Moses Ombati said the exercise was expected to take long hours to end. Officials from the Army, police, Rift Valley Railways, Kenya Red Cross Society and the National Disaster Response Unit were on the ground working to rescue the trapped.

Naliaka said the railways management is set to start an eviction exercise of people living or operating near the railway line. Witnesses said they saw the wagon waver before they derailed and fell on the structures.