Nanyuki road terminals a ticking time bomb

By James Mwangi

Along Nanyuki road where all the oil company terminals are located. [Photo: James Mwangi]

Even after a fuel spillage from the Kenya pipeline Company (KPC) reservoirs triggered a slum tragedy that claimed over 100 lives last year, apparently no lesson was learnt.

The Mukuru Sinai slum fire accident also gutted down property worth millions and left scores nursing serious injuries.

Though they say once bitten twice shy, this sometimes may sound novel to humanity, especially when pushed to the wall by economic hardship.

This is the vivid scenario with the fuel siphoning and cooking activities close to fuel tankers and oil dealer depots at the city’s Industrial areas that have proved a ticking time bomb that may lead to accidents of immense magnitude similar or bigger than Sinai’s.

Essential product

Poverty and unemployment has driven the area slum dwellers to engage in the fuel tapping activity oblivious of the imminent dangers and so are the roadside food dealers, particularly women, who hoping to make ends meet go to such extents of endangering their lives. Here personal safety is pushed to the back burners.

The ‘essential’ product, though sometimes adulterated, is sold for lesser negotiable prices at the black market targeting mostly the boda boda operators as well matatu operators plying the Industrial area sections.

However, the oil dealers located along the Nanyuki road in the area have raised safety concerns over this illegal business. Though there have been successful efforts to push them away from their proximity, fears of a tragedy are rampant.

Oil terminals stocking thousands of tonnes of flammable fuel and highly explosive gases belonging to KPC, Shell, National oil, Oilibya, KenolKobil and Total companies are all concentrated along Nanyuki road.

A senior safety matters officer with one of the companies told The Standard that since the Sinai tragedy last year, these disaster-prone businesses a stone’s-throw away have remained a major agenda the oil companies want addressed promptly.

“This issue has been a nightmare to our operations for long, but now citing what happened last year, we are at full throttle to tackle the menace,” he said. “The irony of it is that despite the high safety standards observed within our grounds, a threat of high magnitude hung around few metres away,” he added.

Key measure

According to the officer joint committee having on board all the dealers located there, there has been meeting to find a lasting solution before the calamity strikes. A key measure being deliberated is to push the tankers farther away from parking near the depots.

“We plan to relocate them to an open ground though we are aware this might be challenged in the courts. But at the end of the day, a long-term solution has to be arrived at speedily,” he confided.

A visit around the congested area confirmed the dealers’ fears that this is a time bomb ticking away. The area is jam-packed with tankers awaiting refilling. More than 200 tankers park there daily to replenish their stock.

The business is a lucrative venture to the players, which they protect to eke out a living from. Here you find apparently inebriated shabby men, despite their fuel-soaked clothes, puffing away cigarettes as they walk between the trucks. Others near the fires while in possession of bucketfuls of residue.

Major concern

They seemingly are unconcerned lot despite witnessing the catastrophe that claimed a big number of their colleagues who rushed to scoop the spilling Super petrol.

Of major concern also is the storage of the combustible product after siphoning. To ensure safety of their spoils, most prefer keeping close to food -dealers — unmindful of fires — to keep an eye out for them.

Most hazardous, however, is the cooking activity done right next to the tankers, some designated for the highly inflammable Super petrol besides the fuel fumes filled in the air. Ignorantly, they go about their business oblivious of the lurking dangers. So are the tankers drivers who we saw drive and park right in front of cooking points oblivious of what could happen should a fire errupt.

“They never care that petrol is highly combustible product that needs careful handling. I dread that fire may break out here because such signs are rife,” said a security guard. In fact four months ago on Easter weekend a fire broke out near the depots but it was contained without casualties. Nonetheless the authorities are blamed for laxity and connivance for the flourishing of these illicit activities.

Makadara District Commissioner Suleiman Chege blamed the City Council for what he said is their failure to crack the whip on the unlicensed operations.

Security threat

The DC said the District Security Committee he chairs had complained to the Council about the illegal businesses and the security threat they pose to the oil companies.

“We have written severally to the Council and to Kisia (immediate former Town Clerk) about these unlawful operations. The Commandant City Inspectorate Mr Koech is also aware of our concerns,” Mr Chege said. Mr Koech however said the matter is of criminal nature and thus not within his sphere.