100 killed in kenya oilpipe explosion

Its seems some criminal cut a pipeline in nairobi,so people could siphon the oil off,there was an explosion killed about 100 people.
most pipelines in underdeveloped countries are above ground.

Terrible indeed Badboy but extremely poor people will risk much, including their lives, to get commodoties. Kenya is a place of many many tragedies.

mara thon wrote:Terrible indeed Badboy but extremely poor people will risk much, including their lives, to get commodoties. Kenya is a place of many many tragedies.

TRUE,ITS SEEMS THERE ARE MANY SUCH TRAGADIES

That must have been some explosion to kill so many people!!!!! Dreadful News.


another story from Kenya, a married couple holidaying in a Beach Shack on the Coast, the only people on the site, were woken by it is believed
Somalis. The Husband was shot dead in the back and the wife kidnapped. It is believed she was taken by Boat to the opposite coastline in Somalia
The Kenyans have been searching everywhere .
Can you imagine how she must be feeling.???????.

It is a terrible event indeed Panda but for the life of me I can't understand why anyone would consider staying at such a place so close to the Somali border, it is such a dangerous area and even at the most exclusive hotels an askari (guard) can be bought for a few shillings, they are extremely poorly paid, the majority not even earning 3000 ksh a month (Kenya shillings), neither are they armed, they have only bows and arrows, which they can use very effectively but are very little use against thugs armed with guns. There are roads around that area that you only travel on when you have informed the police who will then provide you with an armed escort, shiftas (bandits mostly of Somalian origin) have been common in these areas for years and nothing changes. It may be a beautiful area, it may be a beautiful hotel, around £280 per night I believe, Mick Jagger may have stayed there, but I still maintain it is a very stupid place to put a luxury hotel.

Here is the Kenyan report for you Badboy. You will see they mention in the article Kenya Power and Lighting Company, commonly known as Kenya Paraffin Land and Candle Company, even tee shirts were (and probably still are) printed with this on the front.
http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/InsidePage.php?id=2000042798&cid=4&ttl=Another%20disaster%20waiting%20to%20happen%20in%20Kenya

By Standard Team

The fireball from burst fuel pipeline in Nairobi’s Sinai slum could just have been a ghastly reminder of disasters Kenyans court daily and painful warning many are sitting on a time-bomb.

That is the painful verdict from countrywide survey by The Standard after the Sinai Disaster. This is despite the shocking statistics from the Kenya National Disaster Operational Centre that show that since the year began, there have been 110 fire incidents – up from 70 from October to December last year – which have destroyed close 5,376 houses. They were mostly reported in urban slums.

There are also homes and businesses underneath high-voltage power lines, some of which are lit by electricity from illegal connections.

Now, consider the fact that whether in Mombasa, Nakuru, Eldoret Kisumu and the smaller towns dotting the stretch where the pipeline passes, the duct is almost always sandwiched by homes and businesses. Yet the pipeline pumps about 10,000 litres of fuel per minute, which makes the prospect of leakage chilling, especially when the country’s inefficient and unreliable disaster management is considered.

But it is not just on the edges of the pipeline that we court disaster every day.
There are also homes and businesses underneath high-voltage power lines, some of which are lit by electricity from illegal connections. Some of the buildings include skyscrapers that mushroom overnight, defying the principles of safety and guarantees of inspection to ensure appropriateness of construction and materials used.
There are also the homes and businesses that sandwich the railway line.

Worse, when trains are not on sight, the lines serve as open-air markets for tomatoes, fried fish, mitumba clothes, tobacco, and toys among other goods Kenya’s enterprising business groups sell.
There are also the groups that still siphon fuel spilt by tankers that have careened off the roads, or even from the trucks squeezed into the unofficial parking bays on designated points along the highways, such as at Sultan Hamud, Salgaa, Busia, and Malaba.

The tragic reality is among those ‘milking’ the tanks are people whose thirst for cigarettes seemingly is either irresistible, or unquenchable.
Matters are complicated by the fact two years after one of the worst oil tanker tragedies, which claimed over 100 lives, special off-road parking bays for truckers have not been built as the President directed. The sad reality is, the dalliance with death continues.

Horrific accidents

There are also the killer public transport vehicles, which thanks to corruption among police officers and Transport ministry officials, operate without speed governors and inspection for roadworthiness.
On the wheels are drivers who, were Government records reliable, should either be in jail or blacklisted. But what happens? After horrific accidents like the two sobering ones last month in Eastern Province, Government officials talk tough, police carry out crackdowns for a week, and then with time, we are back to our usual road chaos … until the next roads deaths wake us up from our stupor.
On Tuesday, Kenya Pipeline Corporation Managing Director Celest Kilinda acknowledged the danger of human settlements and other activities around its fuel storage and distribution networks.

“We have paid out Sh29 million in Nairobi to get them out of the pipeline area, but we are also carrying out civic education to inform them about the dangers of living near the pipelines,” revealed Kilinda.
Not even the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, which is often the scene of troubled and aborted take-offs because of aircraft’s technical problems or collision with birds, has been spared the encroachment of human settlements – whose clearance politicians almost always resist for votes.

Conceding JKIA is in this state, Internal security minister Orwa Ojode gave notice all structures on the planes’ path would be flattened.
But going by KPC’s and Kenya Power and Lighting Company’s past failure to clear its own wayleafs particularly in the informal settlements where millions live in close proximity, this notice could also fail to achieve.

Encroachment on key pipeline installations is noticeable, from the point of delivery and refining in Mombasa, to the last point of the underground ducts.
From the Kipevu Oil Terminal within the precincts of Mombasa Harbour, unrefined oil from tankers that dock to discharge their cargo is piped to the nearby Kenya Petroleum Oil Refinery in Changamwe in Mombasa mainland.
“We have meager resources to support us and can ill-afford houses in other areas away from here,’’ explained Mwangangi Sio, a resident of Mwangaza village next to the Kipevu Terminal.

Residents of Usoma village in Kisumu are among those who continue to sit on the time bomb – they live a few metres from the Kisumu Pipeline Depot.
Reports from Nakuru indicate that two years after the Sachangwan tragedy, it is still business as usual, as unscrupulous individuals collude with drivers and conductors to siphon oil at selected points between Naivasha and Eldoret.

Resist relocation

Every morning youth converge at the trading centres along highway, to engage in the illegal but lucrative trade. The illegal and risky trade is most noticeable at Mai Mahiu, Kikopey, Kibunja and Sachangwan trading centres.
The flight paths choked by human encroachment include those of airports and airstrips in Eldoret, Kitale, and Kakamega. “This is a disaster in waiting. The Government cannot take anymore of such laxity and resistance to relocation,” Ojode said of the problem at JKIA flight path.
“We must move with speed and save Kenyans from avoidable death traps,” he added then issued a 14-day quit notice to the dwellers to relocate or face evictions.
He told The Standard Nairobi PC Njoroge Ndirangu had been instructed to move with speed and begin evictions after the two-week notice.
The Government also fear terrorists could use these structures on flight passages to compromise air safety.
The other locations where lives could also be at risk include areas prone to landslides, and rudimentary mining in Nyanza and Coast provinces.

mara thon wrote:It is a terrible event indeed Panda but for the life of me I can't understand why anyone would consider staying at such a place so close to the Somali border, it is such a dangerous area and even at the most exclusive hotels an askari (guard) can be bought for a few shillings, they are extremely poorly paid, the majority not even earning 3000 ksh a month (Kenya shillings), neither are they armed, they have only bows and arrows, which they can use very effectively but are very little use against thugs armed with guns. There are roads around that area that you only travel on when you have informed the police who will then provide you with an armed escort, shiftas (bandits mostly of Somalian origin) have been common in these areas for years and nothing changes. It may be a beautiful area, it may be a beautiful hotel, around £280 per night I believe, Mick Jagger may have stayed there, but I still maintain it is a very stupid place to put a luxury hotel.

Hi mara thon, the couple didn"t stay in a Hotel , they stayed in a kind of shack on the Beach. There were pictures of it, and it was the only one in use at the time. The photo of the Husband showed him as being about 40- 45 and good looking, he was a Business man and they probably never
thought anything like that would happen, quite romantic really, a beautiful sandy beach , clear blue water, they probably never thought they were in danger. Can you imagine what the Wife must be feeling, ????? No mention of a ransom ....yet, if she wasn"t kidnapped for that I dread to think
what she might be going through.

It was a luxury lodge hotel Panda, they are unlike normal hotels in that they usually have a central building, reception, dining room, bars etc but you have your own "bungalow" in the grounds. This particular place is described as the exclusive Kiwayu safari village. Normally there are askaries on duty 24 hours a day, patrolling the grounds, the perimter and all entrances, but as I said the stand no chance against armed thugs. The Kiwayu safari lodge has now taken down it's website for the time being, but I assure you it is a very luxurious place. You can see photos of it here:

That poor woman, it really doesn't bear thinking about, one can only hope she is being well treated but unfortunately these "bandits" rarely have any humanity and certainly no conscience.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=pictures+of+kiwayu+safari+lodge&hl=en&rlz=1T4ACAW_en___ES413&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=--hvTp6UE9HLsgbE6pitBw&ved=0CCoQsAQ&biw=1128&bih=761

mara thon wrote:It was a luxury lodge hotel Panda, they are unlike normal hotels in that they usually have a central building, reception, dining room, bars etc but you have your own "bungalow" in the grounds. This particular place is described as the exclusive Kiwayu safari village. Normally there are askaries on duty 24 hours a day, patrolling the grounds, the perimter and all entrances, but as I said the stand no chance against armed thugs. The Kiwayu safari lodge has now taken down it's website for the time being, but I assure you it is a very luxurious place. You can see photos of it here:

That poor woman, it really doesn't bear thinking about, one can only hope she is being well treated but unfortunately these "bandits" rarely have any humanity and certainly no conscience.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=pictures+of+kiwayu+safari+lodge&hl=en&rlz=1T4ACAW_en___ES413&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=--hvTp6UE9HLsgbE6pitBw&ved=0CCoQsAQ&biw=1128&bih=761

Thanks mara thon, the News Photo never showed the inside and from the distance it looked like a canvas shack. The Woman hasn"t been named yet nor news of her Family. That couple were held for more than a year as hostages , you would think the Hotel Management would warn Holidaymakers, even to have a gun handy.

As I write a report of the incident is just being broadcast on BBC News. British men are seen walking along the Beach near the cordoned off
shack, believed to be from the Foreign Office. It is believed the attack was preplanned and a Kenyan local has been arrested for alledgedly
helping the attackers, suspected of being from an Al Queda Group. He said he was forced at gunpoint to show the Terrorists where the couple
were staying. The wife is profoundly deaf so she must be suffering , not knowing what was going on, it really is dreadful.

The explosion was caused by a cigarette.

That is no surprise Badboy, life in Kenya can be a very hazardous business and when there is a chance of getting something for free they don't stop to think about cigarettes being alight. Even for many people to cook a simple meal is often dangerous. They use little stove like things called jikas, the fuel used in them is paraffin, or supposed to be. Five years ago a good friends of mine lost their 15 year old daughter in a tragic event. My friends were out organising the funeral of her father, the daughter and the housegirl were alone in the house when a can of fuel, which was presumed to be paraffin, exploded and in seconds the house was completely burnt down, the housegirl and my friend's daughter burnt to death. We have also seen a compound of beautiful Italian houses burnt to the ground in minutes, caused by one sparks from someone using a jinka across the road from the compound. A complete shopping centre burnt down in minutes caused by overhead electricity wires sparking. When KPLC eventually turned up, long after they had been called about the sparking wires, they had to beat a very hasty retreat before they were lynched by the shop and restaurant owners. There have been many other such events. All the events mentioned above took place in one of the main tourist areas but there is no fire service there. If you call the fire service they have to come from Mombasa, wait for the ferry to cross from Mombasa to the south coast, then a 40 km drive, which cannot be a fast one due to the roads, so you can see there is little point in calling the fire service, people simply have to do what they can. It's a very very hard life indeed for the majority of the population.